(WXYZ) — A Wayne County jury has awarded 25-year-old plaintiff Luther Gonzalez-Hall with a $9.3 million award verdict following his 2018 arrested in front of a White Castle in Dearborn.
The then 20-year-old said he was lost riding his bike home from a friend's house when the confrontation began.
"Dude what are you doing man,"Gonzales-Hall can be heard saying on body camera.
He was asking employees for directions when then he asked the officer the same one.
"I told you where it was at right," the officer can be heard saying. "Yeah," Gonzales-Hall replies.
"So why are you in here asking the same thing?"
"I'm not for sure where I'm going."
"I told you where to go."
"Ok." It was at this moment when Gonzales-Hall and his attorneys say the situation escalated.
"I think he was having a bad day, took it out on me," the plaintiff said.
According to court officials, the Dearborn officer followed the man out of the White Castle doors before tackling him to the ground and off of his bike leading to life-long injuries.
Gonzales-Hall says he was being choked and ran off. Later he was arrested and says the injuries from the arrest led to broken bones which required multiple surgeries.
"It hurts to even walk up the stairs or walk up anywhere, my foot swells up real bad. It's broken in like 5 spots," he said.
After a 5 year legal battle, the Wayne County jury handed down a $9.3 million verdict to Gonzales-Hall. His attorney Azzam Elder says his client tried to de-escalate the situation, but the officer escalated it and violated his client's constitutional rights.
"This young man now has to walk around with a limp because of the surgeries he's had, and all of that was preventable if the officer kept his cool and just given him a ride home," he said.
'I'm just happy that people who didn't even know me gave me justice," Gonzales-Hall added.
