Click For Home PageInclusion Daily Express Logo

International Disability Rights News Service
Click here for today's headlines


Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since 1999.
Daily or Weekly delivery . . .
Purchase this story for your website or newsletter . . .

Donovan Jackson Family Settles Federal Civil Rights Suit
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
March 9, 2005

INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA--The family of Donovan Jackson has agreed to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against Los Angeles County and the city of Inglewood over the teen's video-taped beating by police.

The Associated Press reported that the city and county did not admit any wrongdoing in the deal which must be approved by a federal judge. The settlement is for an undisclosed amount of money, according to an attorney for the city.

On July 6, 2002, Inglewood Police officers Bijan Darvish and Jeremy Morse, who are both white, asked 16-year-old Jackson to sit in a squad car outside a convenience store while they issued his father a ticket for expired license tabs. When Jackson, who has developmental disabilities and is African-American, got out of the car, the officers scuffled with him, wrestled him to the ground, and then arrested him for attacking them.

A videotape of the arrest taken by a tourist showed Morse repeatedly punching the hand-cuffed special education student in the face, then picking him up and slamming him down on the back of the squad car. The video was broadcast on television news stations around the world and on the Internet.

Officer Morse was fired and charged with using excessive and unnecessary force. Those assault charges were dropped last February after two separate trials ended in hung juries.

Officer Darvish was suspended and charged with filing a false police report by not mentioning his partner's conduct. Darvish was later acquitted on that charge. He still works for the Inglewood Police Department.

Morse and Darvish filed their own lawsuit against the city of Inglewood in February of 2003 alleging reverse discrimination.

In January, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded $1.6 million to Morse and $810,000 to Darvish.

The Jackson family's lawsuit against the city and county also named both officers as defendants, along with sheriff's deputies who allegedly witnessed the beating.

Related:
"Donovan Jackson' Arrest" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)

http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/djackson.htm

Click here for top of this page

Purchase this story for your website or newsletter . . .

Here's what subscribers say about Inclusion Daily Express. . .


Get your news here!

Inclusion Daily Express
3231 W. Boone Ave., # 711
Spokane, Washington 99201 USA
Phone: 509-326-5811


News@InclusionDaily.com
Copyright © 2005 Inonit Publishing