A San Diego man says his shoulder was fractured after he was wrongfully arrested and the law was broken when his mugshot was sent to a co-worker. Now, he’s suing both the city and county of San Diego.
Damion Hartsfield, 45, spells out what happened to him in a federal lawsuit filed at the end of July. He says he had just left dinner and was on his way to his hotel in the Gaslamp on New Year’s Day around 1:30 a.m.
The suit says not only was he grabbed from behind and handcuffed by one officer, while he was having a friendly conversation with a different officer, the San Diego man says he was “humiliated” by a sheriff’s deputy.
According to Hartsfield’s attorney, the deputy knew him and texted his mugshot to a colleague where Hartsfield works.
Hartsfield says sending the picture damaged his “reputation” and suggested he was “guilty of a crime.” The suit also claims he became the butt of office gossip.
“The law clearly prohibits the dissemination, the publishing, the sending out of those booking photographs by individual department personnel,” said Gene Iredale, his attorney.
That law is covered under a state statute that went into effect exactly one year before this incident allegedly happened.
According to the suit, Hartsfield says he was wrongly arrested on a public intoxication charge on Jan. 1 of this year.
He says he broke his shoulder in the jail transport van when the driver went too fast and broke hard, sending him crashing to the floor.
The suit also alleges a history of misconduct by officers patrolling downtown. NBC 7 previously reported on one of the cases cited in the suit.
San Diego police held a news conference to explain what led up to the arrest and why officers responded the way they did. NBC 7’s Jackie Crea reports from downtown, where the incident took place on Saturday.
“There’s unjustified tactics involving brutality, affliction and pain, unjustified arrests and the discriminatory use of their powers as law enforcement officers,” Iredale said.
A San Diego County grand jury report from May gave examples of how the officers could better build relationships with the public.
Though the police and sheriff’s departments typically don’t comment when it comes to litigation, the sheriff’s department did send NBC 7 a statement saying:
“The San Diego Sheriff’s Office does not tolerate breaches of confidentiality and investigates all allegations of misconduct. We are aware of and are investigating the allegations contained in plaintiff’s lawsuit. We hold ourselves to the highest level of expectations and require all Sheriff’s employees to adhere to our policies and procedures, as we as all state and federal laws. Peace officer personnel privacy laws preclude us from providing any further comment. Additionally, we do not comment on cases involving active litigation.”