LOUISIANA – Allegations of police brutality surfaced in a lawsuit filed on March 12 in the Baton Rouge federal court against 12 law enforcement officers.
Plaintiff Kevin Cobbins, of St. Tammany Parish, was on his way home from work in the early-morning hours of March 12, 2020. When a police vehicle turned its lights and sirens on behind him, Cobbins exited the interstate to safely pull over on the exit ramp, the lawsuit says.
Cobbins was then allegedly surrounded by five law enforcement officers, who had their weapons drawn, pointing at him, while he still sat in his vehicle.
Despite cooperating with the officers’ commands to remove his keys, put his hands up and exit the vehicle, Cobbins says he was grabbed from his seat and dragged from the car, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to remove his seat belt yet. The suit says Cobbins was raising his voice to alert the officers that he could not move until he removed his seat belt, when a Louisiana State Police lieutenant reportedly said, “I’ll tase him.”
Cobbins was then pulled from his car and thrown to the ground, he says. He repeatedly asked the officers what he had done wrong and was not given a response, except for “not listening,” he says.
Cobbins says he was beaten and tased while pinned, dragged across the pavement to a police vehicle, because he couldn’t walk due to his pain, and that a police officer knowingly closed the door on Cobbins’ leg that was still hanging out of the vehicle.
The officers refused to give the plaintiff their badge numbers, and one turned off his body camera, Cobbins claims.
The entire list of defendants includes: Officers Jonathan Graham, Caleb Mott, Christopher Shaw, Brian Harkins, Scott Glenn and Daniel Edwards (from the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office); Officers Kevin Reeves, John Riles, Mark Richards, Len Marie, Scott Davis and Christopher Sollie (from the Louisiana State Police).
The defendants are charged with excessive force, failure to intervene, failure to train/supervise/discipline, Monell doctrine violation, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
