SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - San Francisco Police dragged a college student from his house and beat him unconscious without a warrant or probable cause, because he had ridden his bicycle on the sidewalk, the man claims in court.
D'Paris Charles Williams, 21, sued the city and three police officers on Dec. 23 in Federal Court.
Williams, who is African-American, says he had just biked home from a Make-A-Wish Foundation event at about 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 15, 2013 and walked into his home on Maxwell Street.
No sooner had he entered him home than he heard someone say, "Come here," Williams says.
He turned and saw the three defendant police officers, all in plainclothes: Gregory Skaug, Milen Banegas and Theodore Polovina, according to the complaint.
Without identifying themselves as police, Kraug told him he had to come out of the house "because he rode his bicycle on the sidewalk," Williams says.
He says he apologized for riding his bike on the sidewalk, but said the officers "had no right to ask him to come outside of his house."
But they reached inside, dragged him out, punched him in the face and in the back of the neck more than 5 times, causing him to lost consciousness. When he awoke, he says, they were choking him.
They cuffed him and took him to the cop shop, then finally to San Francisco General Hospital, Williams says. He spent three days in jail, charged with resisting arrest, assault with force and riding his bike on the sidewalk. All charges were dropped, Williams says.
He seeks punitive damages for excessive force, assault and battery, unlawful arrest, unlawful seizure, and civil rights violations.
He is represented by DeWitt Lacy with The Law Offices of John Burris, in Oakland.
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