Lawsuit Alleges FWPD Officers Used Excessive Force During Arrest
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The City of Fort Worth and members of the police department are facing an excessive force lawsuit by a man who recorded his 2013 traffic stop and subsequent arrest, that he claims was unjust, on his cell phone.
Christopher Swen is suing the City and seven separate police officers.
Swen was a nurse at a North Texas nursing home in 2013. He was driving home after his shift one evening, wearing his scrubs, when an off-duty police officer pulled him over. Since Swen felt he had broken no laws, he began recording audio on his phone.
Swen's attorney, James Francis, says his client is African-American and at the time of the incident felt he was being racially profiled. "That's precisely why he had his phone turned on when the police officer in this arrest came forward. He believed this would be yet another incident where something might go awry -- and in fact it did."
According to Francis, the police officer said he heard, through official communication, that there was a black male, driving a dark-colored car, who had just robbed a home in the area and that he stopped Swen because he fit the profile.
The lawsuit claims Swen was reaching into his car to turn off the ignition when an officer grabbed him and threw him to the ground, injuring his mouth and jaw.
Francis, a Dallas attorney, says Swen's cell phone captured four hours of audio, including dialogue among officers that contradict what they subsequently wrote in the police report. Francis said, "The officers that were involved in the arrest, and/or in the preparation of the affidavit, knew and/or should have known that the facts in the affidavit were untrue in many respects."
LISTEN TO AUDIO FROM THE ARREST
Swen was booked into jail and arraigned on a charge of interfering with public duties, but was never charged with the crime.
In addition to his physical injuries, Francis says Swen had months of counseling for PTSD. Francis explained the trauma was, "Superimposed on the fact that in previous days, and weeks, and months he had been stopped on multiple occasions by other police, never to be arrested, for what he felt were unreasonable reasons. No tickets were issued."
While there is squad car dash-cam video of the incident, Francis says it's the recorded audio that is key in the case. "One has always heard 'a picture's worth 1,000 words' here we believe there's probably 1,000 words which trump the picture, that is the video-cam, because they show that the picture didn't tell the whole story."
Officials with the Fort Worth Police Department declined comment on the lawsuit, saying they do not comment on pending litigation.
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