Beating victim sues city, county police
By Erny Zah
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK, April 28, 2011
Donovan Tanner, 22, of Fruitland, N.M., alleges that his civil rights were violated, and that he sustained physical injuries and emotional distress from an assault by Sheriff's Deputy Dale Frazier. Another deputy and a Farmington police officer were present but did nothing to stop Frazier, the suit states.
The incident happened outside Three Rivers Brewery in Farmington and was recorded by the dashboard camera of Frazier's patrol unit. Frazier had responded to a call about a scuffle inside the bar, and stopped Tanner as he and his brother were walking away from the area.
It's unclear why Frazier targeted Tanner for attention, said Tanner's attorney, Arlon Stoker.
"That's the $3.8 million question," Stoker said, referring to the 1991 case of Los Angeles police beating victim Rodney King.
Tanner is seeking unspecified damages. The suit was filed April 21 in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.
"The Defendants committed assault and battery on (Tanner), and choked him and struck him with a flashlight," the suit states. "The unlawful detention and arrest and the assault and battery were motivated by discrimination based upon (Tanner's) ethnicity and appearance."
Stoker said he thinks the suit could bring a large amount of money.
"I do think it's worth a million," he said.
He compared Tanner's case to that of King's case, the Los Angeles man whose brutal beating by police was recorded on a witness's cell phone camera.
King, who had been fleeing arrest in a vehicle, was stopped and brought to the ground by several Los Angeles Police Department officers, who then gathered around him and beat him with batons. A person living nearby recorded the incident, which later helped King to prove his claim and obtain $3.8 million in damages.
In Tanner's case, Stoker said he wasn't resisting arrest. And while King was beaten on the legs with batons, Tanner was beaten in the head, his attorney said.
Stoker said he has photos showing bruises behind Tanner's ear. He also said the handcuffs placed on Tanner were so tight they left a scar on his wrists.
The dashcam video shows Frazier confronting Tanner, who pauses in his walk and looks at the deputy.
Frazier then says, "Oh, you need convincing?" and shoves Tanner backward onto the hood of the patrol vehicle, pressing the flashlight across Tanner's throat.
Tanner attempts to push the flashlight aside with his hand and Frazier then strikes him in the head several times with it.
On April 6 Frazier, a five-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was suspended with pay pending an internal investigation. He was fired Monday on grounds that he violated the department's "use of force" policy.
"There was no other conclusion that anybody could come to except to terminate (Frazier)," Stoker said, adding he appreciated the San Juan County Sheriff's Office for conducting an internal investigation.
Later in the dashcam video, Tanner is seen handcuffed and bent face first over the hood of the patrol unit. He bangs his head on the hood, which Stoker said was because the handcuffs were on so tight that Tanner's hands went numb.
Deputy Terry McCoy comes into the camera view and appears to choke Tanner while trying to get him to stop banging his head. Then McCoy looks up into the camera, and immediately releases his grip on Tanner.
Farmington Police Officer Misty Taylor also was at the scene that night, but "let the beating continue," Stoker said. She kept the gathering crowd of onlookers from intervening and when one onlooker came close to Tanner, Taylor instructed the individual to move back, Stoker said.
In a previous interview, Farmington Mayor Tommy Roberts said, "I believe that crowd control was her function. She didn't stand and watch. She was fully engaged in crowd control."
The lawsuit names Frazier, the sheriff's office, McCoy, the city police department, and Taylor as defendants. Frazier, McCoy and Taylor are being sued as employees of the law enforcement agencies and as individuals, according to court documents.
Multiple messages left over three weeks for Beth Utley, the sheriff's office public information officer, have gone unreturned.
Meanwhile, officials of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission have met with some of the involved parties. NNHRC Director Leonard Gorman said his office met Stoker last week.
He said Stoker, who has represented Native Americans before in cases similar to Tanner's, agreed to inform the rights commission about potential cases involving civil rights violations.
Gorman said the commission has heard many Navajo people testify about unfair police treatment in San Juan County, and that Tanner's experience adds to the distrust some Navajos feel about the county's law enforcement.
But the existence of detailed video is something new, he said, likening it to a needle in a haystack of allegations about police mistreatment.
"There are so many other incidents that are unrevealed and undiscovered," Gorman said.