- Police Brutality Watch

A Fairfield man who claims he was clubbed to the ground by a police officer during what started out as nothing more than a parking complaint has filed a civil rights suit in federal court. Plaintiff Bijon Lee Hughes names the city of Fairfield, Fairfield Police Officer Jausiah Jacobsen and Fairfield Police Chief Bill Gresham in the suit, which was filed in U.S. Eastern District Court in Sacramento on Wednesday. Hughes, represented by Walnut Creek attorney Andrew C. Schwartz, charges that he had just dropped his child off for day care on Taylor Street the morning of Feb. 5, 2004, when he saw Officer Jacobsen standing next to his car. Jacobsen reportedly told Hughes that his vehicle was illegally parked, demanded his driver's license and then ordered him to sit on the ground. In his lawsuit, Hughes said he was dressed in clean business attire, did not want to sit on the muddy ground and could see no reason to do so. The suit relates that "despite the absence of any justification or authority for such commands, Jacobsen repeatedly yelled at plaintiff to get on the ground and threatened to strike plaintiff with his baton if he did not do so. Jacobsen then struck plaintiff repeatedly with his baton until plaintiff collapsed onto the ground." Hughes later was taken to NorthBay Medical Center for care and eventually later booked at Solano County Jail on a charge of resisting officers. That charge later was thrown out of court for lack of evidence. An African-American, Hughes alleges that Jacobsen's action "was motivated by malicious racial bias and intolerance and that Jacobsen directed plaintiff to sit on the ground for the purpose of humiliating and embarrassing plaintiff." [more]