ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996                TAG: 9604040085
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-5  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER

MAN HURT IN ARREST FILES SUIT SAYS POLICE ACTIONS VIOLATED HIS RIGHTS

A man whose knee was dislocated in a scuffle with police while resisting arrest in April 1994 is suing Roanoke and the two officers.

Lennord Davidson filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday, alleging that his civil rights were violated during his arrest. He is black; the two police officers are white.

He charges that Officers Barry Booth and Duane Jones "used physical force which was clearly excessive" as they arrested him on a charge of public drunkenness. They had been called to his house on VanBuren Street Northwest by his girlfriend, who said he had hit her on the head with a candlestick.

Davidson ran away, and the two officers tackled him, hurting his knee. His suit says he spent 21 days in the hospital recuperating. Although his suit does not detail it, he said at the time that he suffered a dislocated knee and that an artery in his leg was crushed.

He also alleges that the officers beat him and sprayed him with pepper spray, a chemical used to subdue suspects, after he was in handcuffs.

Although an internal investigation cleared the two officers, Davidson's attorney, Thomas Dickenson, said he doesn't trust that probe "even a little bit." He would not comment on whether there were witnesses to the incident.

Roanoke General District Judge John Apostolou found Davidson guilty of impeding police when he resisted arrest. He fined Davidson $500 and imposed a 90-day suspended sentence. Apostolou said it was not up to him to determine if excessive force was used, but said that police must "do whatever it takes to get him arrested."

The internal police investigation found that there was no police brutality and that the officers used "only such force as was necessary."

Davidson, a laborer, is seeking $10.25 million in damages, lost wages and medical expenses. Dickenson said Davidson's doctor has put him on 100 percent disability.

Davidson alleges that the city has a "custom" of failing to train and supervise its police officers properly.

The suit was filed Wednesday because the two-year statute of limitations runs out April 16, Dickenson said. He said it had nothing to do with recent accusations by some Roanoke residents of police brutality against black suspects.

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