Attorneys for a man who says he was shot in the back of the head with a rubber bullet by Los Angeles police during a 2020 protest against the killing of George Floyd want a judge to allow them to further depose the officer who fired the weapon, arguing that the officer’s lawyer blocked key questions during the first session.
According to plaintiff Randall Stewart’s attorneys’ court papers, on May 30, 2020, the plaintiff and other protesters marched down Gardner Street, turned west on Third Street, and eventually stopped near Fairfax Avenue. When the protesters refused to vacate as the officers demanded, Officer Bryan Dameworth of the Los Angeles Police Department began telling them to “leave the (epithet) area” while shooting rubber bullets into the crowd, one of which struck Stewart in the head, causing him severe and permanent injuries.
The allegations in the Los Angeles Superior Court suit were originally filed in March 2021 and recently expanded with additional claims, include assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil rights violations.
On Wednesday, Stewart’s lawyers filed court papers with Judge Daniel S. Murphy seeking a second round of deposition questions with Dameworth. According to the plaintiff’s attorneys, during the first session on July 19, Dameworth’s counsel directed him not to answer questions posed to him about whether his actions conformed with his training in the use of the 40mm launcher, nor whether the protest started out peacefully.
“The record of deposition is replete with examples of unnecessary interruptions, testimonial statements by defendant’s counsel and coaching of the witness,” Stewart’s attorneys allege in their court papers.
Rather than continue with the deposition and continue to be interrupted, Stewart’s attorney suspended the questioning after more than three hours in order to seek an instruction limiting the defense attorney’s interruptions, according to the plaintiff’s lawyers court papers, which also state that they seek the appointment of a third-party referee to oversee the remainder of the deposition.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled Aug. 28.
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted in April 2021 of murder in Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death and was sentenced in June 2021 to more than 22 years in prison.