Star QB Says DC Police Brutalized Him

WASHINGTON (CN) - A highly recruited high school quarterback says his budding career ended when District of Columbia police beat him and injured his knee, in a senseless attack as he was waiting for a ride home from his coach.

Demetri Morgan sued the District of Columbia, its Metro Police Officers Ronald Singleton and Thomas Lonergan and a John Doe officer, in Federal Court.

Woodson says he was starting quarterback for H.D. Woodson High School when the police beat him on the evening of Oct. 27, 2010. He says he "was being actively recruited by universities and colleges" as starting QB for Woodson, which is "widely regarded as one of the region's top teams, and is a hotbed for college recruiting. Prior to the incident complained of herein, plaintiff Demetri Morgan was the star of the team."

Morgan says he had finished practice and was waiting outside the school at about 7:15 p.m. for a coach to give him a ride home.

Shortly before 7: 15 p.m., a school security officer had called the D.C. Metro Police to report two men, who were not students, "who had entered onto the school's premises with the intention of intimidating and otherwise harming H.D. Woodson students, including plaintiff and other members of the football team," according to the complaint.

Morgan says he "did not have any interaction" with those two men, and the responding officers, Singleton and Lonergan, could not catch them - so they whaled on him.

He says the officers threw him against the wall of the school, continued to manhandle him as he fell, and then "proceeded to get on top of him."

He says the officers severely injured his knee in taking him down, so severely he could not play football for the rest of his junior and senior years.

"In addition to ending plaintiff's high school football career prematurely, and causing plaintiff physical and emotional pain and suffering, defendants' actions complained of herein diminished plaintiff's college prospects and cost plaintiff loss of future earnings," the complaint states.

Morgan seeks punitive damages for unconstitutional search and seizure, false arrest, false imprisonment, assault and battery, defamation and negligence.

He is represented by Kevin Borland, of Arlington, Va.

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