Local news
A judge within the state of Vermont has denied the town of Burlington's request to dismiss a lawsuit accusing police of using excessive force and discrimination against a black teenager whose mother called the police to show him a lesson about stealing.
When the 14-year-old, who has behavioral and mental disabilities, refused handy over the past of the stolen e-cigarettes on May 15, 2021, two officers physically forced him to accomplish that, in accordance with the lawsuit and police bodycam video provided to The Associated Press by the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. The teen was handcuffed and pinned to the bottom in his home while he screamed and struggled, in accordance with the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit and the video, he was injected with the sedative ketamine and brought to a hospital.
The lawsuit, filed by the teenager's mother, accuses officers of treating him in another way because they perceived him to be aggressive due to his race, and claims that injecting him with ketamine was “racially motivated disparity.” Burlington officers had visited the house before and were aware of the teenager's disability, the lawsuit says.
“Far too often, victims of police brutality are denied access to court because of an unjust legal doctrine called 'qualified immunity,'” wrote Harrison Stark, an attorney for the ACLU of Vermont, in a press release. “We are delighted that … the court has agreed that this 'get out of court' card is not an excuse to close the courthouse doors.”
The city didn’t immediately reply to an email searching for comment. A city spokesperson said in February that an investigation found that fireplace department officers and paramedics acted in accordance with city and state regulations and policies.
The Associated Press doesn’t, as a general rule, discover minors accused of crimes.
Body camera video shows two law enforcement officials calmly chatting with the teenager as he sits on a bed. His mother urges him to cooperate. She searches drawers, finds many of the remaining e-cigarettes and tries to take the last one from him.
Officers say if he hands over the e-cigarettes, they may leave and he is not going to be charged. He doesn’t respond. After about 10 minutes, officers forcibly take the last e-cigarette from his hand by pulling the 220-pound teen's arms behind his back and pinning him against the bed.
The city argued that officers conducted an inexpensive search and seizure; that its police and fire departments aren’t subject to the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act and that they made reasonable efforts to accommodate the teenager's disability; and that its police and fire departments are protected by qualified immunity, the judge said.
“The crime was not serious, he posed no immediate threat, and he was not attempting to 'elude arrest by flight,'” Vermont Supreme Court Justice Helen Toor wrote in her July 31 ruling. Officers also must have taken into consideration his alleged mental health condition, she wrote. “That could have meant waiting more than 10 minutes before using any type of physical force,” she wrote.
Toor also wrote that “the allegations are more than sufficient to support a racial discrimination claim.” She also wrote that the court “has no basis at this time to dismiss any of the claims based on qualified immunity.” The city has three weeks after the judge's decision to reply. A city spokesperson said by email Tuesday that the town “does not wish to comment on or make any predictions about the likelihood of any particular outcome as this case progresses in court.”
The use of ketamine on suspects has come under criticism recently. At least 17 people in Florida have died over a decade after encounters with police wherein medical personnel injected them with sedatives, a Investigation conducted by The Associated Press.
In Burlington, after the town's investigation, the mayor on the time ordered the hearth department to review its use of ketamine. The state also updated protocols to require a physician's clearance, the town spokeswoman said in February. The paramedics within the Burlington teen's case did, in truth, obtain a physician's clearance, regardless that it wasn't required on the time, she said.
image credit : www.boston.com