Court Forces Cop to Pay $1 Million in His Own Money to Family He Terrorized, Called Racial Slurs
As reported extensively, law enforcement officials, even when found guilty for his or her abusive actions, are almost never held personally liable. it's the taxpayers who foot the bill. However, a trend in accountability seems to be happening more often and can be massively simpler at curbing police brutality than any system in situ at once. Cops are being forced to pay their victims out of their own pockets.The most recent case of a cop being held personally accountable for his crimes comes from Nashville, Tenn. A now-former NYPD cop, Michael J. Reynolds has been ordered to pay $1 million by a federal judge for breaking down the door to an innocent family’s home and terrorizing them within the middle of the night.
Federal Judge Eli Richardson mandated that Reynolds pay $1 million to Conese Halliburton for kicking within the outside door and terrorizing her family, which was all captured on the family’s surveillance cameras.
As the Tennessean reports, Halliburton said she was home along with her sons when Reynolds kicked within the front entrance of her 12 South-area residence and intruded. Video surveillance showed Reynolds screaming and threatening the family and using racist slurs.
Reynolds are often heard saying within the video, “Try to shoot me, and I’ll break every f—ing bone in your f—ing neck,” before calling them “f—ing n——.”
For over 8 minutes, Reynolds threatened to kill Halliburton and her two sons, all the while calling them racial slurs. He didn’t leave until Halliburton told him that police were on the way.
When confronted by police, Reynolds’ blue privilege kicked in and he laughed it off with cops, apologizing with a smile on his face.
“We are police from the big apple. You don’t just make a giant deal about it. We were just drinking,” said Officer Thomas Geberth, per court testimony, during the confrontation.
Reynolds wasn't immediately arrested and only after public backlash was he held accountable — barely. For breaking into an innocent family’s home, threatening to kill them, and effectively holding them hostage for 8 minutes, this cop received just 15 days in jail and failed to lose his job.
He only resigned later because of national outcry that he wasn't fired.
“Ms. Halliburton promised from the start that she would hold ex-Officer Reynolds fully in charge of his criminal misconduct and acquire justice for her family regarding this despicable incident,” said Nashville attorney Daniel A. Horwitz, who represented Halliburton. “We are certainly pleased with this development, but we also aren’t finished here.”
Though it's unlikely that Halliburton will ever see the complete payment, this is often s step in the right direction in holding bad cops accountable. Sadly, if Reynolds would are on duty when he terrorized this family, it'd been swept under the rug and nobody would have known any difference.
Halliburton created a GoFundMe online fundraiser earlier this year to assist with legal costs, if you'd wish to help her out, please consider donating.
As previously reported, although cops being held personally liable is fairly rare, it's happening more and more.
Earlier this year, a Hadley policeman was sentenced to 14 months in prison and compelled to pay a person $2,204 in restitution. In 2017, Hadley policeman Christopher Roeder broke a man’s nose on video. He was found guilty of deprivation of rights under the color of law and falsifying his police report involving the 2017 arrest. As a part of his sentence, he was forced to use his own money to compensate his victims.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Deputy Adam Lin’s case is another example of cops popping out of pocket to buy their crimes.
In 2013, Lin spotted 19-year-old Dontrell Stephens in a very “high-crime area” — the man’s own low-income neighborhood — riding a bicycle in a very manner the deputy found suspicious.
Lin stopped the youth, who dismounted the bike with a telephone in his hand and slowly approached the officer. Just outside the range of dashcam video, the officer shot Stephens fourfold — claiming he was in fear for his life — but footage and evidence clearly showed the claim to be baseless.
Three of the bullets remain lodged in Stephens’ body, in line with the Sun-Sentinel — two in his arm and one in his spine, which left him paralyzed and obsessed on a wheelchair for mobility.
In 2017, Stephens won a large $22.4 million settlement and U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer ruled that Lin should foot a minimum of a little of the bill. Last month, nearly everything this officer owned was seized to pay back Stephens — including everything from his furniture to his clothing.
Lin will most assuredly moot before shooting another unarmed teen.
Imagine, for a flash, the results of all law enforcement officials being held personally to blame for their actions and compelled to pay their victims. In nearly every other profession on the earth, if someone hurts some other person while on the task, they're held liable — personally. Why can’t cops carry personal insurance a bit like doctors?
As instances of police brutality and police killings still are exposed, there's little doubt that the US is in dire need of reform. the straightforward requirement for police to be insured for private liability is a simple fix — especially to get rid of repeat offenders from the force.
All too often, when a tragic death like George Floyd occurs, months later we discover out that the officer should haven't been given a badge and a gun in the first place thanks to their past. However, insurance companies, who can’t fleece the taxpayers to acquire problem cops, would need to take off of pocket to procure them and would confirm that these officers are uninsurable.
If the officer becomes uninsurable, the officer becomes unhirable — as simple as that.
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