Cops ‘viciously’ beat black teen pulled over for speeding, lawsuit claims
By Joshua Rhett Miller
New York Post
April 5,2021
Four California police officers “viciously beat” a black teen they pulled over for speeding, leaving him with a boot imprint on his face and a broken nose, a federal lawsuit claims.
Devin Carter was pulled over for speeding on Dec. 30 in Stockton, where footage released Saturday shows an unidentified officer forcibly pulling him out of his car, according to the lawsuit filed Friday.
“As Devin Carter laid on the [ground] in a fetal position, one officer viciously struck [him] in the face with his knee,” the complaint reads. “Officers’ body camera footage shows that multiple officers began to repeatedly punch, knee and kick Devin Carter in his face, neck and back as he laid in a fetal position screaming in agony.”
The footage shows Carter, 17, yelling that he was “not resisting” as Officers Michael Stiles, Daniel Valarde, Vincent Magana and Omar Villapudua pulled him from the car. The teen repeatedly screams in pain as one officer demanded that he “give him your hands,” the dramatic clip shows.
The lawsuit claims the teen had his hands “visibly raised” above the steering wheel while waiting to surrender before “things quickly turned violent,” leaving him with bruised eyes, scuff marks and a shoe or boot impression on the left side of his face.
“It was unnecessary for multiple officers to repeatedly punch, knee and kick Carter in the face, neck and back when Carter demonstrated no signs of resistance,” the filing claims.
Two of the officers involved in the incident, Stiles and Villapudua, have since been fired, according to an attorney for Carter’s family, John Burris.
Burris compared the teen’s December encounter with police to that of Rodney King, a black man who was beaten by Los Angeles police in March 1991, leading to riots when a jury acquitted four white officers who were caught on video footage.
“The officers’ conduct was so atrocious that they should be criminally prosecuted,” Burris said in a statement. “These vicious cops acted like a pack of wolves, and Devin was their evening meal.”
The teen’s mother, Jessica Carter, said seeing her helpless son on the footage has been her “worst nightmare.”
“No mother should see or hear her son beaten by police and helplessly crying from the pain,” Jessica Carter said in a statement.
All four officers remain under investigation by the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office, Burris said.
Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones has said two of the officers, Villapudua and Stiles, were “well outside” the bounds of department policy and training during the encounter. They were fired last week, CBS Sacramento reported.
“Our department has policies that state we should make attempts to avoid striking an arrestee around the head and neck are when possible,” Jones said in a statement. “Given this set of circumstances, I cannot and will not condone excessive force.”
Jones also noted the use of profanity by officers on the clip, saying it was “unwarranted” and unprofessional.
“Don’t fucking move,” one officer told Carter as he approached the teen’s car following a brief chase. “Don’t fucking move. Take your seatbelt off. Take your fucking seatbelt off!”
The other officers, Valarde and Magana, have been disciplined for their roles in the incident, Jones said.
In addition to his injuries, Carter, who booked on charges of evading and resisting arrest, “continues to suffer” from emotional distress following the incident, the lawsuit claims.
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