Last updated on 2019-11-06
Boy, don’t agitate the Worthington police. After pulling a brown guy from his car in a traffic stop and pounding him in 2017 (settlement: $60,000), they’ve drawn a lawsuit from the ACLU for sending another brown guy to the hospital last January:
The ACLU of Minnesota is suing the City of Worthington and Worthington Police Department over an alleged assault by police that put the victim in intensive care for five days, requiring multiple surgeries.
The ACLU-MN filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota against the city, its police department, Police Chief Troy Appel, Officer Mark Riley and his friend and business partner Evan Eggers – who was doing a ride-along. The complaint alleges that police used excessive force against Kelvin Francisco Rodriguez.
The assault broke four of Rodriguez’s ribs and lacerated his pancreas and liver. Rodriguez, bleeding internally, repeatedly asked for medical assistance, and his requests were ignored. When medical assistance was finally allowed, Rodriguez’s injuries proved so severe, he had to be airlifted to Sanford Medical in Sioux Falls, S.D. He incurred medical expenses close to $150,000.
“What happened to me is happening to other people, but they are silent,” Rodriguez said. “That’s why I’m working with the ACLU of Minnesota to file suit. As a human being, I ask that the police be held accountable for not adequately doing their job and respecting me as a human being. My wife and children saw me going in and out of life and death. I think it is fair to ask for justice. I don’t want to see the officer in uniform.”
The lawsuit alleges that the assault violated the Fourth Amendment and the delay in medical treatment violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
“Immigrants and people of color are too often targeted by police excessive force. We hope this lawsuit makes the city and Worthington police finally recognize and stop the use of excessive force against all people,” said ACLU-MN Legal Director Teresa Nelson. “Police are sworn to protect and serve people, not harm them, and certainly not to send them to the intensive care unit” [ACLU Minnesota, press release, 2019.10.14].
The lawsuit says Rodriguez was driving home from work at the Worthington pork plant when he pulled into a parking lot and ran to avoid getting arrested for driving while brown:
The civil suit claims that Rodriguez — a Sheldon, Iowa resident who works at JBS — was driving on 12th Street in Worthington and noticed a police car. Reportedly fearful of being a person of color in the city of Worthington, Rodriguez pulled into the Scholtes Auto World parking lot, where he parked his vehicle and ran [Alyssa Sobotka, “ACLU Files New Suit Against City of Worthington, Police Department,” Worthington Globe, 2019.10.14].
The ACLU argues the police had no reason to suspect Rodriguez of wrongdoing at the time Officer Riley and his civilian pal Eggers made Rodriguez their punching bag. However, Worthington police brought Rodriguez in as a suspect in another assault committed that night:
Before Rodriguez was taken to jail, public records indicate Riley learned from another police officer that an individual was assaulted by three suspects on 12th Street. One of the suspects fled the scene.
According to public records filed in Nobles County District Court, Rodriguez was identified by the victim and witness as the third suspect. Rodriguez reportedly told law enforcement he just got off work and was giving a co-worker a ride, but he didn’t know the co-worker’s name. His left hand was swollen, which he said was because he works with knives at JBS. He was then transported to the Sanford Worthington emergency room, where he was issued a citation and released from police custody.
He was charged by the Nobles County Attorney’s Office with third-degree riot, a gross misdemeanor; and fifth-degree assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.
Rodriguez filed a plea petition Oct. 10 with the court, which indicates his desire to plead guilty to the disorderly conduct charge in exchange for the dismissal of the other two charges. A plea hearing had not been scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon [Sobotka, 2019.10.14].
Rodriguez may be pleading guilty to misbehavior earlier in the evening of January 12, but at the scene of his beating, he did not appear to have a beating coming. According to the ACLU complaint, Rodriguez may have started to flee, but when the cop switched on his lights, Rodrgiuez surrendered:
14. Rodriguez, fearing for his safety, left his vehicle and ran as Riley and Eggers pulled into the parking lot. Riley turned on his squad lights only after Rodriguez had left his car, which caused Rodriguez to turn around immediately to come back to his car. Both Riley and Eggers ran from the police car toward Rodriguez, who approached them with his hands above his head.
15. As he ran toward Rodriguez, Riley yelled “Get on the f[…]g ground.” Despite speaking and understanding only minimal English, Rodriguez complied with Riley’s orders and laid down on the cold ground. But even after Rodriguez complied and was on the ground, Riley continued ordering him to get on the ground.
16. Eggers got to Rodriguez first. Upon information and belief, Eggers kicked Rodriguez in the back and grabbed his arm before Riley approached them. Riley ordered Rodriguez to place his hands behind his back. Eggers was still holding Rodriguez’s arm when Riley arrived.
17. While Rodriguez was prone and defenseless, Riley approached him and dropped his weight and kneed Rodriguez in the back. Rodriguez cried out in pain. Riley’s knee to Rodriguez’s back broke four ribs and lacerated both his pancreas and liver. Rodriguez moaned in pain and did not resist [ACLU-MN complaint, Rodriguez v. Riley, Appel, Eggers, et al. Case #19:cv-02707, U.S. District Court of Minnesota, 2019.10.14].
If the complaint is accurate, Rodriguez was rightfully scared, and no force was necessary to apprehend him. Get ready to write another check, Worthington.
Related Reading: The Washington Post spotlighted Worthington just last month for the diligent efforts of local white farmers to defeat five bond issue votes held to expand the schools to accommodate over 400 unaccompanied minor immigrants who need schooling in Worthington. They’ve had the help of anti-public-school radical Paul Dorr.) A sixth vote is coming in November. According to the Post, Worthington is now two-thirds minority. White resentment at change is so bad, even a Catholic priest gets threats for reminding his flock what the Gospel says about the stranger:
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Father Jim Callahan took to the pulpit at St. Mary’s Church to defend the migrants. As he delivered his sermon, boos echoed off the stained glass windows. A parishioner’s son, in town for the holiday, was heckling him.
Another man approached Callahan after a different sermon on immigration and threatened to kill him, the priest recalled. And a stranger at a gas station spit in his face.
“They can call it whatever they want,” Callahan, 69, said of the opposition to expanding the school system, “but the bottom line is that it is racism” [Michael E. Miller, “Immigrants Fill This Town’s Schools. Their Bus Driver Is Leading the Backlash,” Washington Post, 2019.09.22; reprinted in Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2019.09.23].
Worthington Mayor Mike Kuhle is trying to fight that racism and the bad press by noting that immigration is good for economic development in town and for farmers.
Put those white boys and girls to work in the plant or move the plant to Mexico. The exploitation of workers in the world is appalling. We do the hate so we can eat great. As the priest found out, in today’s world, there is no place for Christianity except for those immigrants who still believe in it.
Minnesota nice?! Worthington appears as a racist town swirling the drain, lacking adult leadership or any civic or religious (save Father Callahan) moral authority. Is it Kristallnacht in a different skin, religion? It’s long past the time to hold the chief & other chief beaters personally liable and responsible for the medical costs as likely being criminally negligent.
John, there are some very decent people in Worthington, including the mayor and other civic officials, trying to protect immigrants. But there also are some vicious racists like that bus driver in the Wapo story and obviously some cops.
Several churches are trying to protect the immigrants. I’m wondering what the good guys are working on to ensure that Worthington is a safe place for all residents. I’m sure they’re planning, because no one wants their town to have such an ugly reputation.
More than Kristallnacht, it makes me think of Alabama sheriff Bull Connor who beat Black people for crimes like drinking out of the wrong water fountain.
Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings passed away at 68. One of the last of the great Black civil rights warriors from the 60s and a proverbial thorn in orange drumpf’s backside. Can hardly wait for the vile tweets from the baby in the kremlin annex.
RIP at last, Mr Cummings.
Oh. His death is a great loss for the USA. RIP indeed, and thank you, Congressman Cummings, for giving us more than we ever deserved.