Jury awards $18 to innocent black man who was punched, tasered and arrested

$18 richer than yesterday

How the frick are these 3 guys still employed?

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The internal affairs investigation found that the officers used excessive force and unlawfully entered the Franklins’ home. They were disciplined for their actions, including written reprimands, Kevin Lawler, spokesman for the city, told the Indianapolis Star. The police department also trained the officers on Fourth Amendment rights and developed new classes on ethics and diversity, the Star reported.

The same three officers involved in the Franklin lawsuit were named in a 2013 case filed by Jonathan Ferguson, a 7-Eleven store clerk with a learning disability. According to a federal complaint, the officers slashed Ferguson’s tire, and two of them challenged him to eat a teaspoon of cinnamon in exchange for $30 and a dinner coupon at a local Applebee’s. Ferguson did, and he vomited for several hours.


The officers took a video of the “cinnamon challenge,” as it had become locally known, and posted it on YouTube, according to the complaint. The parties have reached a settlement in that lawsuit.

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$18 is pretty insulting if you experience physical abuse that is their fault, but $1MM is absurd too.

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Although the jury found constitutional violations, there was no evidence presented in court that supported the amount of damages that the Franklins were seeking. He said the Franklins asked for more than $1 million in damages.

In civil rights lawsuits, damages are usually measured by medical bills, lost wages, property damage, post-traumatic stress, psychological treatment, impairment and others, Agostino said. But in this case, no such evidence was presented, so the jury awarded the plaintiffs the default amount of $1, he said.

“You can say that they experienced a deprivation of their constitutional rights,” Agostino said.

“But other than the deprivation of constitutional rights, the jury did not find other damages that go along with that,” he said. “They did exactly what they were instructed to do. They applied the law and determined the facts.”


According to Agostino, the city did offer $15,000 to settle the case.

Johnny Ulmer, the Franklins’ attorney, was not available for comment on Monday. But he told the Star that damages for other similar cases are between $100,000 and $300,000.

“If they would have put an amount on the table that I felt was appropriate, we would have settled,” Ulmer told the Star. “What happened that night, the physical abuse that DeShawn suffered — they were slapping my clients in the face with the offer they put out there.”

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The jury made more money than this guy

No really, he will get attorneys fees which will be way more than 15k. to take a case to jury, at least 30-50k

I would gladly pay 18 bucks to punch a lot mfers on here just once. lol

From what I read this is wrong (if more to the story I will change my opinion). Typically I side with LEO but from what I read they were looking for his brother and even after they realized he was not his brother they continued with the arrest.

I understand the "resisting arrest" by Franklin, if I'm asleep and all of a sudden I'm being grabbed for "no reason" I'm fighting back too. I personally think "resisting arrest" is a bullsh t charge that gets thrown in all the time. There are other bs charges as well but resisting is tops IMHO. i know don't resist just comply and everything will be OK. I agree with this statement, however; if I'm asleep in my bed and get woken up by this I'm in a fight mode not flight mode.

Luckily nobody was shot (how sad to have to say that). The Jury agreed with him on principal but the award is not commiserate with the injustice that I perceive he endured. Did he endure 100k-300k in damage? Probably not, but it was alot more than $18.

Cops dindu nuffin?

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he will get attorneys fees which will be way more than 15k. to take a case to jury, at least 30-50k

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You might want to read Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68.

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Sounds like he got paid $17 too much.

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And it sounds like your mother should have gone to CVS the next morning but didn't feel like spending the $17.