Federal judge Dismisses part of suit against Brownfield Police due to Lawyer Mistake: Cops Accused of Assaulting Latino Man

From [HERE] and [HERE] A federal judge in Lubbock ruled that sufficient information exists to allow an excessive force lawsuit filed this summer against two Brownfield police officers to go forward. U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings ruled that there are legitimate questions for trial about whether officers Joshua Coronado and Matthew Valdonado violated Zackary Kegan Cruz’s Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure during a July 2011 traffic stop.

The suit alleges Coronado kicked Cruz in the head while he was handcuffed and on the ground and that Valdonado then picked him up and slammed his head onto the hood of a police car.

In a ruling Thursday on a defense motion to dismiss the suit, Cummings threw out charges against the Brownfield police department and a constitutional complaint that argued the violence that occurred during the traffic stop also violated Cruz’s Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The judge dismissed the charges with prejudice because Cruz's lawyer failed to properly name the defendants being sued in the complaint filed. 

Cruz’s attorney, David Martinez, said in an interview Friday he was satisfied with Cummings’ ruling because it narrows down the issues when the case goes to trial.

Martinez also said he never named the city of Brownfield or its police department as a defendant because Texas tort law requires the plaintiff to choose either the individuals or the municipality when the suit is filed.

An errant comma in the original suit’s caption may have given the impression the police department was a separate defendant.

The suit’s caption lists the defendants as “City of Brownfield Police Department, Officers Joshua Coronado and Matthew Valdonado.” But in the body of the suit there’s no description of the police department, only of the two officers.

Cummings noted in his order the plaintiff did not file a response to the motion for dismissal.

Martinez said he felt no need to answer the motion because he believes the excessive force complaint is strong on the evidence.

In their answer, Coronado and Valdonado say they didn’t injure Cruz.

The response, filed by attorney Matt Matzner, contends Cruz was injured in a fight earlier in the evening. The officers say Cruz “domestically assaulted” a woman and then drove away with her in his car.

The officers also said Cruz became injured when someone intervened in the domestic assault and that he injured himself when he ran from the traffic stop “face-first into a wooden fence while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.”

The defense attorney also said he was not surprised by Cummings’ dismissal of the Eighth Amendment claim.

Cummings noted that the case was about excessive force during an arrest, and cited a case to show the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Bill of Rights applies only after a criminal conviction.