LaDarius Butler had broken no law last year when he and his partner chose to take their 3-year-old child from a Colorado hospital after receiving conflicting medical advice on how to treat his shortness of breath in order to seek another medical opinion elsewhere.
But the Black man ended up tasered, handcuffed, and arrested on a false charge of obstruction, which was later dismissed.
Now the 32-year-old man is suing the Aurora Police Department, a law enforcement agency that is currently under a consent decree due to its “pattern and practice of violating state and federal law through racially biased policing,” according to IntegrAssure, the company overseeing the consent decree.
The lawsuit was filed in May, but body camera video was not released until Wednesday, according to a press release from Mehr Jolly, the Colorado law firm representing Butler.
“This entire incident could have been resolved with a simple phone call,” said attorney Kevin Mehr in the press release.
“Instead, once again the Aurora Police Department chose violence with a SWAT-style ambush that risked the lives of a young father and his two children,” the statement continued.
The Aurora Police Department is the same agency that, in 2019, killed Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who was doing nothing but walking down the street, minding his own business, when he was confronted by a group of cops who detained him for looking “suspicious.”
It was that incident that led to the Aurora Police Department being placed under a consent decree, which is described as a “means for law enforcement officials in violation to re-align themselves with the honor codes and duties of their profession with the help of the federal government and other parties dedicated to criminal justice,” according to the website Criminal Justice Programs.
The Aurora Police Department ended up settling with McClain’s family for $15 million, a record settlement for Colorado at the time.
But judging by the body camera footage of Butler’s 2024 arrest, the Aurora Police Department has learned nothing from its past mistakes because the video shows a group of cops surrounding Butler, who was sleeping inside his car along with his children in a Walmart parking lot while his partner shopped inside.
“The simple fact is that LaDarius Butler is lucky to be alive,” Mehr stated in the press release.
Watch the video below.
‘Tase Him!’
The incident took place on May 22, 2024, after Butler and his partner, Jayla Houston, took their 3-year-old son to Children’s Hospital Colorado for shortness of breath. The child is referred to as “O.B.” in the lawsuit.
But the claim states the parents chose to take the child elsewhere after receiving “conflicting medical advice concerning their son” and “felt pressured by medical staff to subject O.B. to treatments they did not feel were in their son’s best interest.”
Hospital staff called police, providing the officers with Butler’s and Houston’s phone numbers, but rather than call the parents to discuss the situation, police chose to find them down using a tracking device that “pinged” their telephones, leading the cops to the Walmart parking lot.
The cops then began treating Butler as a “high risk” suspect, even though there was no evidence to support that claim, the claim states.
First, the cops used their patrol cars to pin his car from behind and in front while ordering him out of the car at gunpoint, treating him as if he were a violent felon on the run rather than a concerned father looking out for his kids.
“Turn the car off. Throw the keys out!” one cop demanded while pointing his gun toward Butler and hiding behind the open door of his patrol car.
“What are you all doing?” Butler repeatedly asked, knowing he had broken no law. “I ain’t no damn criminal!”
“Step out the car,” another cop ordered.
“I got kids in the car,” Butler said as he exited the car, complying with their orders. “What are you all doing, man?”
Two cops then walked up to him and grabbed him by his wrists while another cop says, “Tase him” — even though he was not resisting.
“Don’t tase me, man!” Butler said seconds before a cop tasered him, causing him to fall to the ground while screaming in pain.
‘I’m Really, Really Hurt!’
After tasering Butler, one cop placed his knee on his back while handcuffing him as he repeatedly asked, “What are you all doing to me, man?”
“I’m really, really hurt,” Butler said. “My other daughter is in the car, her mom is in Walmart, man.”
“I don’t have nothing,” he said as they frisked him for weapons.
It was only after they tortured and shackled him that they explained the reason for their actions.
“You guys took the little one from the hospital,” one cop said.
“That’s my child,” Butler responded.
“Ok, but it was in the ICU unit and needed medical treatment, so that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing,” the cop said.
“No, I don’t mind him getting a treatment,” Butler responded. “You all ain’t understanding.”
“We have information that you guys took a kid from the hospital who was in life danger.”
“No, he was not in life danger,” Butler responded.
“That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing, and you weren’t complying with us, dude.”
But the video shows he was complying, but just confused as to why he was jolted awake by armed agents of the state when he was doing nothing illegal.
Listed as defendants in the lawsuit are Aurora police officers Caleb Parrella, Adrian Arce-Cerda, Evan Rider, Michael Baer, Daniel Rubino, Chandler Phillips and Sgt. Anthony Spano.
Parrella was also named in another lawsuit after pulling a Black man out of his car and tasering him over an improper license plate in 2021. Parrella was also investigated and cleared for shooting another man who was the victim of theft after that man pulled a gun on the man who stole his backpack.
The lawsuit accuses the cops of using excessive force, failure to intervene and malicious prosecution.
“Mr. Butler suffered damage as a result of being arrested, taken to jail, criminally charged, and forced to spend almost one year litigating his criminal matter prior to the case being dismissed,” the claim states.
“This caused Mr. Butler anxiety, loss of freedom, wrongful incarceration, and humiliation, among other damages.”
One day after arresting Butler, Aurora police shot and killed another Black man named Kilyn Lewis, who was holding a phone in his hand with his arms raised, complying with their orders, resulting in another lawsuit.
Great Job Carlos Miller & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
