The men who Keenan Ellsberry says threatened his life weren’t criminals or members of a gang. These men carried a badge.
"He said he was going to kill me, over and over," Ellsberry said. "I will kill you right now, I will kill you right now."
The trouble started in the wee hours of the morning on May 2, 2011. On his way to his ex-wife’s home in Rosedale Park, Detroit cops said Ellsberry made a right turn without signaling and tried to pull him over. They said he didn’t stop his car until pulling into his ex-wife’s driveway.
"They told me to turn around, put your hands up. My hands were up. And I just got tackled," Ellsberry recalled. "They handcuffed me, choking me, kneeing me. 'Where are the drugs and guns, where are the drugs and guns, where are the drugs and guns?' "
Ellsberry said he wasn’t resisting the officers, but in their reports, cops wrote that he swung a “closed fist” at them, hitting an officer in the chin and later grabbing for his gun.
He was charged with resisting and assaulting a police officer, with at least three cops prepared to testify against him. But before the case went to trial, another officer on the scene came forward, saying Ellsberry was the victim of police brutality.
That officer told internal affairs that Ellsberry “was handcuffed and not resisting” while Officer Justin Lyons delivered “two knee strikes to his mid section.” He said Officer William Zeolla “stepped on the side of (Ellsberry’s) face," calling him an expletive.
The injuries were bad enough that Ellsberry was taken to the hospital. Doctors said he suffered “blunt trauma to his chest,” a ruptured ear drum and a “minor closed head injury”.
The charges against him were later dropped, and Ellsberry filed suit against the cops. It was then that he learned they’d both been accused before.
Attorneys like Dan Romano have taken hundreds of Detroit cops to court through the years, often, he says, the very same ones.
"It’s good for my business, it’s bad for the City of Detroit," Romano said.
Officer Raymoxley Berry has been sued at least four times for misconduct. The city settled each for a total of $315,000.
Officer Brian Laperriere has been sued at least six times, with settlements costing taxpayers at least $613,500.
Officer Juan Reynoso has been sued at least four times. One incident, where he shot an unarmed man, resulted in criminal charges that were ultimately dismissed. Lawsuits against Reynoso have cost taxpayers $2,451,000 in settlements.
In each case we’ve told you about, the city admitted no wrongdoing, and none of the officers were ever convicted of a crime.
We shared our findings with Willy Bell,the Vice-President of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners. For 30 years before that, he was a Detroit cop.
"We should be concerned. I look at that as a red flag," Bell said. "I don’t think we can take this lightly, that they just want to settle. I think they want to settle because of the issues involved."
In fact, according to city records, more than 80 Detroit police officers - past and present - have been sued at least 3 times since 2008, with one officer recording 8 total suits. The city won’t release his or her name, along with any other officer who’s worked in an undercover capacity.
Mark Diaz is the president of the Detroit Police Officers Association. He said simply settling a case doesn’t mean an officer was at fault.
Frivolous lawsuits, he said, are just an ugly part of being a cop.
"Settling out of court is viewed as the officer actually did something wrong when, in fact, that officer did nothing wrong," Diaz said.
"The more contact they have with that criminal element, the more likely they are to draw complaints as well as the false allegations that the officer’s did something wrong," he said.
"But is the City of Detroit going to write a six or even a seven figure check if an officer did everything right?" asked Channel 7's Ross Jones.
"It absolutely depends on the circumstance," Diaz said.
Chief James Craig said his department closely monitors lawsuits filed against officers.
"If we see like conduct, allegations, different allegations that are made and a series of not resolved allegations, in my view that’s a pattern of conduct," Craig said.
He wasn’t familiar with any lawsuits filed before he got on the job two years ago, and he wouldn’t talk about any officers by name.
"If one officer in the City of Detroit has cost taxpayers $2.5 million in settlements," asked Jones, "how confident are you that that officer - who’s still on the job - should be?"
"Well, let me just say I’d be concerned enough to take a look at it, and off-camera, I’d like to have the name of that individual so that I can personally take a look," Craig said.
We shared the name of that officer and a whole host of others with Craig's office when we talked to him last week. His spokesman told us yesterday he had no further comment.
Keenan Ellsberry’s lawsuit against the city is still ongoing, as is the internal affairs investigation into the officers’ conduct that night. It’s been going on for four years..
A police spokesman wouldn’t elaborate as to why.
7 Investigator Ross Jones will be joining the Scripps Washington, D.C. Bureau beginning in October. Until Friday, he can be reached at rjones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
