DHS Disputes Allegations in Van Nuys Car Wash Owner’s Suit

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Friday disputed an elderly Van Nuys car wash owner’s allegations that he was assaulted and incarcerated by federal agents for no legal reason during an immigration raid on his business last year.

Rafie Shouhed, 80, is seeking $50 million in damages from DHS and other federal agencies involved in the Sept. 9 raid on Valley Car Wash on Van Nuys Boulevard, according to the federal civil rights lawsuit filed Thursday.

Shouhed contends that after he was shoved and body-slammed onto the pavement where three agents jumped on his back, he was arrested and incarcerated for 12 hours inside a federal lockup in downtown Los Angeles without medical attention. He says he was eventually released without charges.

DHS maintains that Shouhed was lawfully arrested for assaulting an immigration officer and attempting to obstruct the raid.

“On September 9, U.S. Border Patrol conducted a targeted immigration enforcement operation in Van Nuys, California, that resulted in the arrest of five illegal aliens from Guatemala and Mexico who broke our nation’s immigration laws, including one who was removed from the country twice in 2015,” DHS said in a statement shared with City News Service on Friday.

“The owner of Valley Car Wash, a U.S. citizen, obstructed the operation and was arrested for assaulting and obstructing a federal law enforcement officer.”

In response, Shouhed’s attorney, V. James DeSimone, said his client never attempted to obstruct the raid in any manner and was only asking if he could provide documentation for his employees when he was allegedly pushed to the ground.

“We have provided clear and compelling video evidence to the United States of America demonstrating that Mr. Shouhed did not obstruct anyone nor did he assault any federal law enforcement officer,” DeSimone said. “Instead, DHS brutalized a senior citizen business owner who was attempting to have a conversation with them. In its response to the filing of the lawsuit, the United States of America continues to defame Mr. Shouhed instead of accepting accountability for its unlawful actions which continue to harm him to this day.”

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court alleges Shouhed was inside the car wash on Sept. 9 when masked agents stormed the premises in the late morning hours.

Surveillance video shows an agent, without warning, knocking Shouhed to the ground inside a hallway as the business owner apparently tried to find out what was going on, and later being tackled by agents as he stood outside. The video shows no violence or attempted obstruction on Shouhed’s part, DeSimone says.

Shouhed said that after the hallway incident, he stepped outside to speak with agents, offering to provide proof that his employees were legally authorized to work. Instead, he alleges, agents cursed at him, shoved him and body-slammed him onto the pavement.

Three agents then jumped on his back, with one forcing his knee onto Shouhed’s neck as others wrenched his arms behind him, the suit asserts.

Shouhed contends that from under the dogpile, he cried out that he had recently undergone heart surgery, had three stents in his chest, that he could not breathe, and that he needed an ambulance, the complaint states.

The plaintiff’s attorney alleges agents ignored Shouhed’s pleas, handcuffed him, and took him to the Metropolitan Detention Center. Even after agents admitted they knew he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1980, he was kept in custody for 12 hours, and was denied medical treatment and phone calls to his family, according to the lawsuit.

“Civil rights protections exist to restrain government power before someone is thrown to the ground, injured and forgotten in a holding cell,” DeSimone said in a statement Thursday. “Mr. Shouhed was not running, resisting or threatening anyone. They tackled a then-79-year-old man, body-slammed him to the ground, crushed him under the weight of three agents, put a knee on his neck and ignored him as he cried out that he could not breathe.”

When he was finally released, without charges, he claims, his son rushed him to a hospital. Doctors treated him for post-concussive symptoms of a traumatic brain injury, multiple bruised ribs, serious injuries to his elbows and contusions, Shouhed says, adding that he continues to suffer physical pain, psychological trauma and the effects of a traumatic brain injury.

The lawsuit alleges assault, battery, violation of the California Civil Code, deliberate indifference to a serious medical condition in violation of the 14th Amendment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and more. The suit also asserts that DHS, ICE and CBP maintain policies and practices that tolerate and condone the use of excessive force.