Panhandler awarded $100M after cop shocked him with a stun gun during 2018 foot chase

A panhandler who fell and broke his neck in Atlanta when a police officer shocked him with a stun gun during a foot chase in 2018 has been awarded $100 million by a federal jury.

Jerry Blasingame, 69, who is paralyzed from falling and hitting his head on the cement, now needs round-the-clock care costing $1 million a year, and has $14 million in medical bills so far, attorney Ven Johnson told jurors. 

It was determined by the jury that Officer Jon Grubbs used unreasonable force against Blasingame, who was 65 at the time and had been asking drivers for money on July 10, 2018.

Jurors found that the Atlanta Police Department should pay $60 million and Grubbs, who was allowed to return to full duty six months after the incident, should pay $40 million, WXIA-TV and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The city has filed a motion for a directed verdict. A ruling from a judge on that motion may amend the jury’s verdict.

Jurors found that Officer Jon Grubbs (pictured) used unreasonable force against Blasingame, who was 65 at the time and had been asking drivers for money on July 10, 2018

Judge Steve Jones has not yet ruled on that request, online court records indicate. Jones ruled before deliberations began that jurors could reasonably find that Grubbs used excessive force, and that they could consider the city’s argument.

‘The record would allow the jury to find that Mr. Blasingame had not been committing a serious crime before he was tased/ that Officer Grubbs did not fear for his safety/ and that the exigent circumstances were not otherwise so severe as to permit Officer Grubbs’ use of force,’ Jones wrote Friday.

Blasingame’s conservator, Keith Edwards, sued the city of Atlanta and the officer, Jon Grubbs, for the cost of his past and future medical bills.

Grubbs stepped out of the patrol car and told Blasingame to stop, but he moved out of the street to a guard rail, and Grubbs ran toward him, according to the lawsuit

Grubbs then gets out of the car and starts chasing the 65 year old man, eventually shocking him with a stun gun that made him fall and break his neck

Body cam footage shows Blasingame lying facedown on the ground after being shocked

Johnson and civil rights attorney Craig Jones said Grubbs violated department policy by using a stun gun on an elderly man who was running away, the newspaper reported.

Edwards’ lawsuit said Blasingame was on the street and asking people for money when Grubbs and another officer arrived and saw him talking with a driver.

Grubbs stepped out of the patrol car and told Blasingame to stop, but he moved out of the street to a guard rail, and Grubbs ran toward him, according to the lawsuit.

‘Grubbs gets out of the car and starts chasing my client – a 65-year-old man – and for what? For potentially asking people for money?’ Johnson said.

Johnson said the city did not make a thorough enough investigation into Grubbs’ conduct and let him return to full duty six months after the incident and before the investigation was concluded.

‘This is how an officer gets away with excessive force,’ he told the jury in his closing argument. ‘You bury it.’

Staci J. Miller, one of the attorneys representing Atlanta and Grubbs, said Blasingame´s injuries were tragic, but city training and department policy were not to blame.

The City of Atlanta’s lawyers, who also represented Grubbs, were not available to comment on the verdict and a spokesperson for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens declined to comment, the newspaper reported.

Grubbs joined the Atlanta Police Department as a cadet in December 2013, according to records of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council. He became a full officer a year later and has served on the force since then.

He has no sanctions in his POST records and is listed as an officer in good standing by the state police certifying agency.