Man
alleges excessive force used during arrest; seeks $500,000
Last
week, a Minneapolis man filed a lawsuit against several Roseville police
officers following his arrest last spring.
Victor
Yair Hernandez-Rivera alleges that four officers used excessive force against
him during a traffic stop that led to his arrest in May 2013, and is seeking
$500,000 in punitive damages.
The
suit was filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday, April 10, and the Roseville
Police Dept. announced April 17 it had opened an internal investigation of the
incident.
“The
Roseville Police Department takes allegations of this nature very seriously,” a
statement from the department says. “The internal affairs investigation can
take considerable time to complete. We ask for the public’s patience as we
investigate the allegations.”
In
the meantime, however, Hernandez-Rivera’s attorney Paul Edlund says the lawsuit
will move forward, and is “looking forward” to learning the results of the
internal investigation.
Driver
fled running
According
to the complaint, Hernandez-Rivera, who was 24 at the time, was one of two
travelers in a white Saturn sedan traveling eastbound on State Highway 36 that
was pulled over for suspected speeding during the early morning hours of May
26, 2013.
After
exiting the thoroughfare onto Lexington Avenue and pulling over on a residntial
side street, the driver fled the scene on foot. Officer Justin Gunderson, whose
squad car was equipped with a dashboard camera that captured the entire event,
ran after the driver and allegedly pointed his pistol at the vehicle, yelling
“Stay back!”
The
driver can be seen running into the front yard of a home before disappearing
behind a fence, Gunderson in close pursuit.
According
to Hernandez-Rivera’s attorney, the driver has never been caught.
Three
Taser cycles
After
about a minute and a half, Gunderson returned to where the Saturn was pulled
over, and Hernandez-Rivera opened his door to get out. The complaint states
that Hernandez-Rivera then stood up in the door and held his hands up in front
of his body “in a non-aggressive sign of compliance.” He had his cell phone in
his right hand.
Gunderson
notified other officers by radio that one of the occupants was exiting the
vehicle and allegedly yelled, “Don’t you move, don’t you f-ing move!”
He
then allegedly yelled, “Get on the ground,” and grabbed the back of
Hernandez-Rivera’s neck, forcing him to the sidewalk on his stomach. The
complaint states he was pushed “with enough force to shatter the cell phone” in
his hand, which was trapped under his body.
Then,
Gunderson allegedly shot a Taser into Hernandez-Rivera’s legs and back and
yelled, “stop resisting, put your hands behind your back!”
Officer
Erin Reski then arrived on the scene and allegedly yelled, “Stop resisting!”
The complaint states that she allegedly struck Hernandez-Rivera in the side
twice with her knee as she attempted to force Hernandez-Rivera’s hands behind
his back.
Gunderson
then allegedly deployed the Taser twice more. Hernandez-Rivera can allegedly be
heard moaning, “no, no,” over the clicking sound of the gun.
Finally,
Hernandez-Rivera was able to lift his arm out from under his body as two more
Roseville officers, Kyle Eckert and Grant Dattilo, arrived on the scene.
Dattilo
allegedly kicked Hernandez-Rivera in the side, got on the ground and punched
him twice.
Officers
then cuffed Hernandez and pulled him from the ground to be searched against the
side of the car.
Arrestee
allegedly knows ‘limited’ English
The
complaint states that as Reski was performing a search, “it becomes clear that
Hernandez does not understand” what she is saying. Reski allegedly asked him,
“You don’t speak English at all, do you?”
After
being directed to the squad car, Gunderson allegedly asked Hernandez in Spanish
where “his friend” was, to which Hernandez-Rivera responded that he did not
know.
“Oh,
you don’t know, are you stupid?” Gunderson allegedly responded in Spanish. The
complaint states that he also allegedly “taunted” Hernandez-Rivera for not
knowing.
Hernandez-Rivera
then sat, handcuffed, in the back of a squad car for “over an hour,”according
to the complaint, before he was brought to the Ramsey County Law Enforcement
Center.
The
amount of English Hernandez-Rivera knows is “limited,” according to his
attorney, Paul Edlund.
Misdemeanor
charges dismissed
The
Roseville city attorney then charged Hernandez-Rivera with misdemeanor
obstruction of legal process without force and misdemeanor failure to obey a
police officer under city ordinances.
Both
charges were dismissed in court.
“[Hernandez-Rivera]
stayed in the car because that’s what you do when you get pulled over by the
police,”Edlund said. “He had no reason to flee or think he had done anything
wrong.”
Ultimately,
Edlund says, the reason the lawsuit was even able to be filed is because
there’s a dash cam recording. “What’s really concerning is what happens to the
cases where there’s not video,” Edlund said. “[In this case] their complaint is
in stark contrast to what the video shows.
“[Hernandez-Rivera]
filed this lawsuit because he thinks it’s very important for other people to
see this video to deter this kind of police conduct and make sure this doesn’t
happen again.”
To
see a shortened version of the dash camera video from the May 26, 2013, traffic
stop, see below or click this link.