A Vermont judge has denied the city of Burlington’s request to dismiss the case a lawsuit He claims that the police used excessive force and discriminated against a black teenager, and that his mother called the police to teach him a lesson about stealing.
When the 14-year-old, who has behavioral and intellectual disabilities, failed to turn over the last of the stolen e-cigarettes on May 15, 2021, two officers physically forced him to do so, according to the lawsuit and police bodycam video shared with The Associated Press by the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. The teen was handcuffed and pinned to the floor of his home as he screamed and struggled, the lawsuit said.
According to the criminal complaint and video, he was injected with the anesthetic ketamine and taken to the hospital.
The lawsuit, filed by the teen’s mother, accuses officers of treating him differently because they saw him as aggressive because of his race. It also alleges that injecting him with ketamine was “race-based disparate treatment.” Burlington officers had previously visited the home and were aware of the teen’s disabilities, the lawsuit says.
“Too often, victims of police brutality are denied their day in court because of an unjust legal doctrine called ‘qualified immunity,’” Harrison Stark, an attorney for the ACLU of Vermont, wrote in a statement. “We are pleased that … the Court has agreed that this ‘get-out-of-court-free’ card is not an excuse to close the courthouse doors.”
The city did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. A city spokesman said in February that an investigation found that officers and fire department EMTs acted within city and state rules and policies.
The Associated Press does not generally release the names of minors accused of crimes.
Bodycam footage shows two officers calmly talking to the teen, who is sitting on a bed. His mother tells him to cooperate; she searches through drawers and finds most of the remaining e-cigarettes and tries to get the last one from him.
Officers say that if he gives up the e-cigarettes, they will leave and he will not be charged. He does not respond. After about 10 minutes, the officers forcibly remove the last of the e-cigarettes from his hand by pulling the 230-pound teen’s arms behind his back and pinning him to the bed.
The city argued that officers conducted a reasonable search and seizure, that the police and fire departments are not covered by the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act and that they made reasonable efforts to accommodate the teen’s disabilities, and that the police and fire departments are protected by qualified immunity, the judge said.
“The crime was not serious, he did not pose an imminent threat, and he did not attempt to ‘evade arrest by fleeing,’” Vermont Supreme Court Justice Helen Toor wrote in her July 31 ruling. The officers also should have taken into account his reported mental health condition, she wrote. “That could have meant waiting longer than 10 minutes before using any form of physical force,” she wrote.
Toor also wrote that “the allegations are more than sufficient to support a claim of racial discrimination.” She also wrote that the court “has no basis at this time to dismiss any of the claims on qualified immunity grounds.” The city has three weeks from the judge’s ruling to respond.
The use of ketamine in suspects has recently come under scrutiny. At least 17 people have died in Florida in the past decade after encounters with police in which medical personnel administered tranquilizers, An investigation led by The Associated Press has found.
In Burlington, the mayor at the time ordered the fire department to review its use of ketamine after the city conducted an investigation, and the state updated its protocols to require a doctor’s approval, the city spokesperson said in February. Paramedics in the case of the Burlington teen did get a doctor’s approval, even though it wasn’t required at the time, she said.