Man beaten by Dallas cops gets $615k settlement from city
A man who was beaten and bloodied by two Dallas police officers while he was in handcuffs will get a $615,000 settlement from the city council.
Jon McDonald was injured during a 2014 arrest at a motel along Stemmons Freeway. The case raises questions about the civil service board, a panel appointed by city council members that reviews cases when fired police officers are trying to get their jobs back.
McDonald and his mother say his life will never be the same.
“You can't put a dollar amount on the suffering and medical issues I will have in the future,” McDonald said.
McDonald's girlfriend called police because he refused to leave the Budget Suites. McDonald acknowledges he'd been drinking, but claims in his lawsuit that police rushed him.
“Before I could think I was tackled on the wall, wrestled to the floor,” McDonald said.
His attorney, Ori Raphael, said cops moved fast and aggressively.
“He was disabled, not able to lift arms up, reaction time was slower. Officers reacted really quickly, he wasn't able to do that,” Raphael said.
According to police affidavits, two officers used force because McDonald was resisting arrest.
“Handcuffed, sat up on the bed, then the two officers punched me in the face.”
A motel security guard snapped a photo as he was put into the police car that was later used to show what occurred.
One officer later resigned. The other was fired after an internal investigation but was then rehired last year after a two day appeals hearing before the city's civil service board.
FOX 4 learned only three of the board's seven members were present for the hearing. Mayor Mike Rawlings raised concern about the vacancies after Wednesday's vote on the settlement.
"One of the issues in Civil Service is six of us folks have not appointed someone to the civil service board. Check and make sure you do that,” Rawlings said.
Four of the city council members who did not have appointees on the board told FOX 4 that their vacancies had happened recently and they are working to fill them.
The officer who was rehired now works in DPD's communications department.