Floyd Dent, the man from Inkster, Mich., whose violent encounter with police was captured on a dash cam, settled a lawsuit with the city for $1.4 million on Wednesday.
While it will bring Dent some closure when it comes to his legal battle with the city, the trauma from the incident isn’t something he can leave in the past just yet.
When testifying in court, Dent revealed that he still suffers from memory loss as a result of that frightening encounter.
“Sometimes I have loss of memory,” he said, according to BuzzFeed. “I can’t really think straight, and I forget things to say.”
The alleged memory loss stems from his encounter with police back in January. Dent was pulled over for running a stop sign but what should have been a simple traffic stop escalated quickly.
Police dash cam video shows Dent being placed in a chokehold and repeatedly punched by Officer William Melendez.
On the video Dent can be heard asking the officers, “Why you beating on me like this?”
Despite Dent being the one on camera suffering from an attack, he was also hit with charges of alleged assault and drug charges.
The charges were eventually dropped when NBC affiliated WDIV released the dash cam video to the public. Dent also claimed the officers planted a small bag of crack cocaine under his passenger seat.
The aftermath of the case resulted in the resignation of an Inkster police chief in April and the suspension of two other officers.
Melendez, however, was fired and charged with misconduct in officer and assault with intent to do great bodily harm. If convicted, Melendez faces up to 15 years behind bars.
Dent is pleased with the results of the case so far but also admitted that even the hefty settlement isn’t enough for him to simply move past what happened that night.
“Money isn’t everything,” he added. “It can’t buy happiness.”
