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.