and today's winner is............
Suspect wins one case then is arrested
Post-Dispatch
01/25/2005
ST. LOUIS
Suspect wins one case then is arrested
Lance A. Cole got mixed results in the federal courthouse Tuesday.
He won $2,500 in damages on a claim that a St. Louis police officer kicked him in the groin just two days after Cole accidentally shot himself in the genitals. But he got arrested as he left the courtroom.
A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis found that a police officer had used excessive force against Cole after an arrest in June 2002 and awarded the $2,500.
"It's a vindication for Lance Cole. And it's a victory for civil rights: they apply to prisoners in the St. Louis central lockup," said Cole's attorney, Michael George.
The case stemmed from an incident in June 2002 when Cole, 24, stashed a pistol in his pants and it went off. After Cole got surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, he was arrested on a parole violation. In his suit, he claimed that two days after the shooting, an officer kicked him in the groin during a scuffle at police headquarters.