A
federal jury is hearing arguments on a man’s claim that Cottage Grove officers
violated his civil rights
By
Jack Moran
A federal jury began hearing evidence Monday
in a civil rights trial stemming from a man’s claims that he was beaten and
wrongfully arrested by Cottage Grove police officers who confronted him while
investigating a burglary report.
Charles
Duncan, an attorney for Matthew Waggoner, told jurors in U.S. District Court in
Eugene that his client is entitled to more than $624,000 in damages to cover
medical bills and lost income, and for having his constitutional rights
violated by police.
Waggoner
claims that police involved in the incident tackled him, causing him to suffer
a serious knee injury. He alleges that one of the officers kicked him in that
same knee while escorting him to a jail cell.
He
spent four days in Cottage Grove’s city jail on charges of disorderly conduct
and resisting arrest. The charges were later dismissed, and he was not
prosecuted for any crime.
An
attorney representing police in the case, meanwhile, said the officers who used
force to take Waggoner into custody handled the situation appropriately.
“They
did what they were supposed to do,” attorney Robert Wagner told the jury while
making an opening statement in the trial.
Wagner
said Waggoner was drunk and fought with officers who approached him. Police
deny Waggoner’s claims that the officers struck him with a nightstick and used
a stun gun while placing him under arrest.
The
incident occurred after four officers arrived in the 1000 block of Adams Street
on the afternoon of Dec. 15, 2010, to investigate a burglary report. They found
Waggoner walking in the area, and confronted him.
Duncan
gave the jury the following account to explain why Waggoner was in the area
that day: He said Waggoner had stayed overnight at a woman’s home in the
neighborhood, and that the pair drank alcohol together in the hours before the
woman fell asleep and Waggoner decided to return to his own house.
Waggoner
locked the door behind him as he left the woman’s home, but then discovered he
had left his cellphone inside. He was trying to find a way back into the house
when a neighbor called 911 to report a possible burglary.
“He
only wanted his cellphone back,” Duncan told jurors.
Waggoner
claims police were immediately aggressive with him and that he didn’t
immediately identify them as officers.
But
Wagner, the attorney representing police, said it was daylight when the
incident occurred, and that Waggoner “was completely uncooperative” and
resistant when the officers tried to detain him in order to determine whether
he had tried to break into the woman’s home.
Once
he was handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle, Waggoner banged his head
against a window and kicked at the doors, Wagner said.
The
four officers involved in the incident are Tami Howell, Jarrod Butler, Doug
Skaggs and David Burgin.
Waggoner
initially alleged in his lawsuit that police had refused to provide him medical
treatment at the jail, but Duncan told jurors that he would not attempt to
prove that claim. Waggoner also had accused an officer at the jail of using a
racial slur referring to his Japanese ancestry, but his attorney did not
mention that allegation while making his opening statement.
The
trial continues today, and is scheduled to wrap up by Thursday.