Our client, a 20 year-old who suffered from Asperger syndrome was with a group of his friends in a shopping center parking lot simulating a “motorcross”. His car’s engine frequently backfired and did so many times when the police drove into the parking lot. The police thought he had fired a gun, so they dragged him out of his car and beat him and kicked him. Even though they realized that he had no gun, and that it was indeed his car that made the noise, they held him for more than an hour and released him with multiple tickets. Because of the violent beating, our client sustained multiple injuries including a concussion and two lumbar disc injuries that will cause permanent spinal damage. The City offered our client $150k which we said was unacceptable. We took the case to trial and the jury awarded our client $2.3 million.
