A court has decided that a federal complaint alleging that Clackamas County SWAT officers colluded to use excessive force against a 24-year-old Black man due in part to racial animosity can go to trial.
According to the lawsuit, on June 18, 2022, during a traffic check in Milwaukie, Derrick Dewayne Clark Jr. was shot twice by other cops as he fled, and SWAT members allegedly laughed, joked, and ignored his agony while letting him slowly die.
According to U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman’s 43-page opinion, the Court concludes that the Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that the SWAT Defendants’ remarks, which included calling Clark “ole boy,” comparing him to a warm dead dear, and saying that they were going to do some janky shit and get it done, were racially derogatory.
Beckerman turned down a move from Clackamas County to have accusations of excessive force by its deputies and a motion to have an Oregon City officer and county deputies not provide medical assistance.
However, Beckerman dismissed more general claims that the county and its sheriff’s office had participated in a widespread practice or habit of violating non-white people’s constitutional rights. Additionally, she said that while the county should not be held accountable, the deputies involved may be held accountable for using excessive force or neglecting to offer medical attention.
Mo Hamoudi, a Seattle-based attorney who works for Clark’s family, applauded the decision.
He added in a statement that the Court’s ruling marks a turning point for the family in their quest for justice and responsibility.
Because it is extremely uncommon—possibly unheard of since the 1960s—for a court to conclude that a plaintiff has credibly claimed a civil rights conspiracy under a provision of federal law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, Hamoudi referred to the judge’s conclusions as unusual.
The Civil Rights Act of 1871, also referred to as the Ku Klux Klan Act, is the foundation of contemporary civil rights litigation. Following the Civil War, the statute offered constitutional safeguards.
According to Hamoudi’s email, its use in this instance highlights the seriousness of the accusations and the underlying problems. It says volumes that officers from a contemporary police agency, like the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, are being sued under this landmark law.
According to grand jury testimony and snippets of body and dash camera footage, Clark was shot eight times by Oregon State Police Trooper Zachary Cole and Clackamas County sheriff’s detective Daniel Ferguson as he fled after his car was pulled over during a traffic stop in Milwaukie at around one in the morning.
According to the lawsuit and a body camera video clip made public by the family’s attorneys, at least one officer claimed to have heard Clark groaning with what sounded like screams for assistance, but it would be over two more hours after the last gunshot was fired before anybody ventured close to him.
According to a grand jury transcript, no one administered emergency first aid to Clark.
In a commercial parking lot, Clackamas County SWAT officers, together with an Oregon City police officer who serves as a crisis negotiator for SWAT, gathered in an armored ambush vehicle and discovered a gun that Clark had left behind.
According to the verdict, another SWAT officer told the cops that Clark had been hurt and had moved once, but that no one had seen him move for around eighty minutes.
According to Beckerman’s verdict, the SWAT cops joked that they would eventually have probable cause and that Clark might be flanking them, which is police jargon that suggests he might attack them from the side. They also discussed using gas against Clark.
According to the verdict, the SWAT officers hurled two different explosive devices at Clark while he was still unmoving after repeatedly warning him over a speaker that they would use force if he did not surrender.
The ruling observed that the SWAT defendants were laughing during this time, saying things like “there was no screaming,” “he’s flying supine,” “he dead” (a)ren’t you recording, “I don’t care,” and “he dead a warm dead dear.”
After a third explosive device was thrown at Clark and more warnings that a dog would be let loose to bite him, one SWAT member stated, “Let’s just bite him already,” while another said, “(t)his ole boy is no longer with us.”
According to the ruling, one SWAT member laughed when another claimed that Clark was dead, adding that he might be lying lower than a snake in a top hat.
A police dog that had been released by an officer bit Clark’s body around 2:52 a.m. According to the ruling, SWAT officers talked about how Clark had been smoked and was declared dead at 2:53 a.m.
When Cole, the state trooper, and Ferguson, the Clackamas County sheriff’s detective, shot Clark close to the intersection of Southeast Wood Road and Railroad Avenue in Milwaukie, a Clackamas County grand jury found no criminal misconduct. The county SWAT did not include Cole or Ferguson.
According to a transcript of testimony before the grand jury and an investigation conducted by the state Justice Department, Cole and Ferguson suspected Clark of driving under the influence when they attempted to stop his vehicle.
— Maxine Bernstein writes about criminal justice and federal courts. You can contact her via [email protected], 503-221-8212, X@maxoregonian, or LinkedIn.
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