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Annapolis Sued for Police Brutality

By Jack Lebowitz, Esq. and Vadim Mzhen, Esq.

The city of Annapolis, Maryland, the Annapolis Police Department, and two Annapolis police officers have been named as the defendants of a personal injury lawsuit for police brutality.

Jose Louis Meneses-Araiza and Quinton T. Smith are accusing Officer Gary Black of arresting and beating each of them without justifiable reason during two separate incidents. Meneses-Araiza and Smith are accusing Officer Michael Schreiber and other members of the police force of covering up the attacks. This is the second police brutality lawsuit that has been filed against Officer Schreiber in the past year.

The two plaintiffs are alleging battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, unlawful search and seizure, and conspiracy. They are also accusing the Police Department of failing to properly train and oversee its police officers.

Meneses-Araiza and Smith are seeking punitive and compensatory damages.

Meneses-Araiza says that Officer Black arrested and beat him on March 30, 2005 when Meneses-Araiza offered to act as a translator to Black, who was citing a group of Hispanic men for a traffic violation. Black told him to go away.

When Meneses-Araiza kept talking to the men, he says that Black arrested him for disorderly conduct and assaulted him. Meneses-Araiza says he lost consciousness and that Officers Black and Schreiber got an ambulance to pick him up. Paramedics took him to Anne Arundel Medical Center for what they believed was a drug overdose. Black filed second-degree assault charges against Meneses-Araiza.

Meneses-Araiza says he spent more than $71,000 in medical bills because of the serious head injury he sustained from the assault and that he had to undergo a craniotomy.

Smith says his lips needed stitches after Black arrested him. The incident occurred on August 19, 2005. He says that he yelled at Black and other police officers because he felt that they were being too rough on someone else they were arresting at the time.

He says that Black assaulted him. Smith said that police told him that any pending arrest charges against him would be dropped if he didn?t file a complaint against Black.

Officer Black retired from the Annapolis police force in 2006 and now works for the Caroline County Sheriff?s Department. Caroline County Sheriff Philip L. Brown had nothing but praise for Black, who is currently on leave from the force while serving in Iraq.

If you have been a victim of police brutality in Maryland or Washington D.C., please contact our personal injury law firm for your free consultation.

City sued for police brutality, HometownAnnapolis.com, March 28, 2008

Annapolis man suing the city for $2.25M, HometownAnnapolis.com, January 29, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Annapolis, Maryland

Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States

Lebowitz & Mzhen has helped many injury victims in Maryland and Washington D.C. recover punitive and compensatory damages for the harm that they have suffered.

Full post as published by Maryland Accident Law Blog on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).