Court upholds excessive force finding

The Third Circuit Court of Appeal has upheld Dist. Judge Alonzo Harris’ ruling that the City of Eunice and Police Officer Brian Rozas are 50 percent at fault in injuries sustained by Jurnell Smith when he came upon a police stop while driving home on the night of April 2009.
Smith, a retired Air Force master sergeant who was a correctional officer in Pine Prairie at the time, was pepper sprayed, shocked by a stun gun and thrown to the ground after being stopped on North Martin Luther King near Lloyd Street, where he lived.
At trial, Harris awarded Smith about $125,000 in damages, medical expenses and lost wages.
In October 2009, Smith was found not guilty in Eunice City Court on charges of interfering with a police investigation and resisting arrest.
In December 2009, he sued the city, city officers Rozas, Peggy Sylvester and John Cormier, St. Landry Sheriff Bobby Guirdroz and Deputy Eric Reed.
Judge Harris denied motions in December 2010 and February 2011 by the plaintiffs for summary dismissal and the matter went to trial in June 2012.
At the end of four days, Cormier and Sylvester were dismissed as defendants and Harris found that Smith had not committed any crime and the officers had no probable cause to arrest him.
Guidroz and Reed were assessed one-half the fault, as were Eunice and Rozas.
Guidroz and Reed appealed but settled with Smith in the meantime and moved to dismiss their appeal.
The city and Rozas pursued their appeal, saying Harris erred in finding no probable cause, in not finding Rozas’ use of force reasonable, in awarding damages and in finding no fault on the part of Smith.
They argued that the probable cause to arrest Smith was established in the City Court proceedings.
The appealate court denied that res judicata (the principle that an issue cannot be relitigated without new circumstances) applied.
The judges noted that when Smith advised Reed and Rozas, who responding to a complaint, that he was on his way home when encountering their road block they should have stopped their questioning and sent him on his way.
They also agreed with Harris that the use of pepper spray and tasers to subdue Smith was excessive force.
“Defendants ask this court to accept the version of facts offered by the officers as true and discount the Plaintiff’s testimony. They point to contradictions in Plaintiff’s testimony. The trial court noted there were conflicts in the officers’ testimony as well, and recognized resolution of this case came down to which testimony was found more credible,” the appealate court noted, agreeing with Harris ruling that “The court finds that both Officers, Rozas and Reed overreacted in this case” and that the officers’ actiions were the sole cause of the incident.