HuffPo | A Ferguson police officer who helped detain a journalist in a
McDonald's earlier this month is in the midst of a civil rights lawsuit
because he allegedly hog-tied a 12-year-old boy who was checking the
mail at the end of his driveway.
According to a lawsuit filed in
2012 in Missouri federal court, Justin Cosma and another officer,
Richard Carter, approached a 12-year-old boy who was checking the
mailbox at the end of his driveway in June 2010. Cosma was an officer
with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at the time, the lawsuit
states. The pair asked the boy if he'd been playing on a nearby highway,
and he replied no, according to the lawsuit.
Then, the officers
"became confrontational" and intimidated the child, the lawsuit claims.
"Unprovoked and without cause, the deputies grabbed [the boy], choked
him around the neck and threw him to the ground," it says. The boy was
shirtless at the time, and allegedly "suffered bruising, choke marks,
scrapes and cuts across his body."
The 12-year-old was transferred to a medical facility for treatment,
but the lawsuit says Cosma and the other officer reported the incident
as "assault of a law enforcement officer third degree” and
“resisting/interfering with arrest, detention or stop."
Jefferson County prosecutors "refused to issue a juvenile case" against the young child, the suit says.
The allegations against Cosma were made in September 2012, shortly after he was introduced as a new officer at a Ferguson City Council meeting. Jefferson County is south of Ferguson.
Captain
Ron Arnhart of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, who is a
candidate for sheriff, did not respond to The Huffington Post's request
for comment on the circumstances of Cosma's departure. Neither Ferguson
police spokesman Tom Zoll nor Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson
responded to requests for comment.
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