TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) 鈥 Jacksonville law enforcement officers violated the civil rights of a 22-year-old Black college student when they pulled him from his car and beat him during a traffic stop, according to a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Jacksonville on Wednesday.
A video showing a Jacksonville Sheriff’s officer punching and dragging from his car during a stop in February online this summer and sparked .
Prosecutors announced in August they would take no action after determining the conduct of Officer D. Bowers of the Jacksonville Sheriff鈥檚 Office , according to an investigative report released by the State Attorney鈥檚 Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida.
McNeil’s attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels say Jacksonville Sheriff鈥檚 Office’s policies allow officers to engage in racial profiling and “illegal or excessive use of force鈥 without fear of consequences. Crump is a Black civil rights attorney who has gained representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an unjustifiable, unnecessary and most importantly unconstitutional use of force,鈥 Crump said.
The attorneys said the lawsuit is aimed not only at addressing the treatment of their client, but at changing the culture of policing in the area.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters has said there’s more to the story than the viral cellphone video and that McNeil was repeatedly asked to exit his vehicle. Waters, who is Black, said the footage from inside the car 鈥渄oes not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding the incident.鈥
The lawsuit names Waters, Bowers, and another officer named D. Miller, as well as the City of Jacksonville and Duval County government. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
According to a prosecutors’ report, Bowers stopped McNeil for failing to turn on his headlights and buckle his seatbelt, after seeing his SUV parked outside a house the officer was surveilling for 鈥渄rug activity.鈥
Questioning the justification for the stop, McNeil requested a supervisor respond to the incident. Based on a review of body camera footage, interviews with officers and statements by McNeil, prosecutors said Bowers gave McNeil a dozen 鈥渓awful commands,鈥 which he disobeyed.
Crump has claimed officers’ accounts of the incident are unreliable and has fiercely criticized prosecutors鈥 finding that officers did not commit any criminal wrongdoing, saying his client remained calm while the officers who are trained to de-escalate tense situations were the ones escalating violence. Crump said the case harkened back to the Civil Rights movement, when Black people were often attacked when they tried to assert their rights.
According to his attorneys, McNeil suffered a laceration to the chin and lip, a fractured tooth, and has been diagnosed with an 鈥渙ngoing traumatic brain injury.鈥 McNeil also continues to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder-like symptoms, including nightmares and flashbacks of the incident, his lawyers wrote in a legal filing.
McNeil’s attorneys have also formally called on the Department of Justice to conduct its own investigation of the incident and what they described as 鈥渆xcessive force鈥 and 鈥渟ystemic failures鈥 by Jacksonville officials.
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
