A half-dozen people sued the city of Long Beach on excessive force and other allegations stemming from a videotaped confrontation with baton-wielding police officers in a hip restaurant and club district.
Ashleigh Sola, Thomas Ramirez, Gerardo Lopez Jr., Sophia Lopez, Isabella Barcenas and Kelvin Grant filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking unspecified damages.
The plaintiffs’ other allegations are assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A representative Monday for the City Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The encounter occurred about 2 a.m. on April 19, 2015, in the 200 block of Pine Avenue, where patrol officers attempted to break up a fight between two men, according to a Long Beach Police Department news release issued at the time.
Police maintain they tried to arrest a man who appeared to be intoxicated, but several of his friends attempted to intervene in the arrest.
The suit states that all of the plaintiffs except Grant were confronted by another group that challenged Lopez Jr. to a fight. Ramirez separated Lopez Jr. from the other group and mediated the situation, preventing it from escalating, the suit states.
However, Long Beach officers arrived and reignited the incident by assaulting the plaintiffs, the suit alleges. Lopez Jr. was struck in the back of the head and pushed onto a car while being choked with what may have been a baton, according to the complaint.
Sola, 26, was placed in handcuffs and choked, then slammed to the ground, the suit alleges. Cell phone video shown on newscasts shortly afterward appeared to show an officer restraining Sola by putting his arm around her neck, then throwing her to the ground as another officer pushed her friends away.
Sola is asthmatic, according to the complaint.
Ramirez was beaten with a baton about his shoulders and his right cheek, while Lopez was struck on one leg, the suit alleges. All five were taken to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, according to their court papers.
Grant witnessed the confrontation between police and the other plaintiffs, then began to record the aftermath, the suit sayss. The Georgia native, who was not very familiar with Long Beach, was unlawfully detained and arrested while trying to drive home, the suit alleges.
–City News Service