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| Ex-inmate says deputies beat him |
| By Charlotte Observer |
| Published: 09/05/2003 |
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A former Mecklenburg, N.C. jail inmate testified Monday that deputies beat him like a dog while he was being booked into the jail in 1997. Stacy Cunningham claims one of the deputies, James Riley, kicked him in the eye, leaving him partially blind. Cunningham, in a lawsuit filed against Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph and Riley, claims that excessive force was used in subduing him. 'Three or four deputies were beating me down like a dog,' Cunningham, 40, told jurors. 'I was being hit and kicked in my ribs -- anywhere they could hit me.' Riley has denied kicking Cunningham. His lawyer, Scott MacLatchie, told jurors that Cunningham had threatened the deputies and put a headlock on one of the deputies during the scuffle. MacLatchie recalled Cunningham's words at the jail before the fight broke out: 'If you put your hands on me, it's going to be on.' Jurors watched videotapes Monday of the Nov. 2, 1997, scuffle between Cunningham and the deputies. At one point, a deputy can be seen striking Cunningham as the inmate was wrestled to the ground and then apparently handcuffed. At another point, a deputy appears to be kicking. Alvin Cohn, an expert in corrections training and the use of force, told jurors that excessive force was used in subduing Cunningham. Cohn said he saw no hostile behavior on the part of Cunningham in the videotapes. There was no audio, so jurors could not hear what was being said before the fight broke out. Cunningham was arrested after being accused of an assault. He told jurors that while being processed at the jail, one of the deputies had been calling him stupid and threatening to beat him. He said he kept telling the deputy to do his job and book him into the jail. He acknowledged under cross-examination that he 'got smart' with the deputy who had been 'smart' with him. He also acknowledged telling one of the deputies that if he put his hands on him, 'it's going to be on.' At one point in the video, deputies can be seen charging Cunningham. Then, one began striking him. Cunningham acknowledged he was holding onto one of the deputies during the fight. Cunningham told jurors that Riley at one point was squatting over him, cursing at him and telling him he was stupid. He said his hands had been cuffed behind his back when he was kicked in the eye. |
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