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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Boy Tasered for Playing in a Tree, Mom Says

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A boy with Asperger's syndrome was playing in a tree when Los Angeles sheriff's deputies ordered him down at gunpoint, then beat and Tasered him, his mother claims in court.

Monique Castro says her son, I.C., was 15 when three L.A. County sheriff's deputies beat the tar out of him for nothing on April 27, 2014.

She sued L.A. County and its sheriff's Officers Victor Iniquiez, Jamil Johnson and Sgt. Byron Ward, on June 11 in Federal Court.

Asperger's syndrome is a developmental disorder similar to autism. Among other things, children with Asperger's have difficulty communicating and interacting socially and may have eccentric behaviors.

Castro says her son had merely "climbed up a tree to play" when the three officers "arrived with their firearms drawn" and ordered him "to come down from said tree."

She says her son "fully complied" with their orders, but the deputies beat the hell out of him anyway, throwing him to the ground, kneeing him in the head and Tasering him. She says the deputies did not formally arrest him "for any reason."

He needed medical care and still suffers from "emotional distress and anxiety," according to the complaint.

The Sheriff's Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Castro and her son seek punitive damages for excessive force, negligence, assault and battery and pain and suffering.

They are represented by Humberto Guizar of Montebello, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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