Cellphone video that shows Antioch police punching and kicking a man who was not charged with a crime is now at the center of a federal civil rights lawsuit.
ABC7 News I-Team obtains cellphone video at the center of Antioch police excessive force lawsuit amid racist text message scandal.Antioch police never charged a man and said they just wanted to talk to him. So, why did they pull him to the ground, punch and kick him? That cellphone video obtained by the ABC7 News I-Team is at the center of a federal civil rights lawsuit just filed.
Antioch police are already dealing with a widespread scandal - dozens of officers accused of exchanging racist texts. This man's attorney wonders if the cases are related.40% of Antioch police force likely involved in alleged racist texting scandal, public defender says 29-year-old Rebecca Rodriguez is an after-school program teacher. 30-year-old Juan Laspada's a stay-at-home dad for their three children and a part-time construction worker. They were leaving a friend's apartment on a Friday evening in February of last year when an Antioch police officer approached.
Rodriguez told the I-Team, "So he was like, 'Are you guys okay?' I said, 'We're fine.' And then we thought that would be it.""He just kept like insisting to speak to me. And I was like, you know, 'I don't need to speak to you. I'm not on probation. I'm not on parole. I don't have to speak to you.'""No, he didn't. He didn't say, no. He didn't say why he was there. He didn't, nothing.
They were just looking for their Uber ride home, but the conversation with the officer escalated, according to Laspada.
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