U.S. Court Rules Ferguson Man’s Lawsuit for Wrongful Arrest and Police Assault Can Proceed

The case of Missouri man Henry Davis against the Ferguson Police Department was reinstated by a federal appeals court on July 28.

Davis filed a lawsuit against the department in 2010, arguing he was wrongly mistaken for a criminal and physically assaulted by three white Ferguson, Mo., police officers. With the lawsuit Davis included a photo that shows him bleeding from his head. This injury had resulted in Davis being charged with destruction of property for bleeding on the officers’ uniforms.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Nannette Baker halted his case in 2014 after saying his injuries weren’t severe enough to merit prosecution.

But on July 28 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8^th Circuit ruled that Baker should not have dismissed Davis’ claims.

The St. Louis Dispatch reports below:

Judge James B. Loken wrote for the three-judge panel that based on some past appellate rulings, Baker had concluded “that the police officers were entitled to qualified immunity because, ‘as unreasonable as it may sound, a reasonable officer could have believed that beating a subdued and compliant Mr. Davis while causing only a concussion, scalp laceration, and bruising with almost no permanent damage did not violate the Constitution.’” Loken added, “We disagree.”

The decision continued, “No case acknowledging this issue has held that serious injuries such as ‘a concussion, scalp laceration, and bruising’ can be considered de minimis (too trivial to consider) as a matter of law for qualified immunity purposes.”

In other words, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8^th Circuit ruled incurring concussion, scalp laceration, and bruising to a subdued and compliant (black) man should not be considered too trivial for a court to consider.

This decision comes as the Ferguson Police Department is trying to mend its reputation in the community after the Department of Justice issued a report exposing racist practices in the department.