A homeless man had to have both his legs amputated after cops in Florida handcuffed and sat him in the back of a police van with no seatbelts before driving recklessly, a federal lawsuit claims.
Heriberto Alejandro Sanchez-Mayen filed the lawsuit against the city of St. Petersburg and Sarah Gladdis and Michael Thacker, the arresting officers, alleging police brutality and civil rights violations.
On June 8, 2023, Sanchez-Mayen was arrested on a trespassing charge. Police bodycam footage shows the officers approach him and ask what he was doing.
“I fell asleep,” Sanchez-Mayen answered.
Officer Gaddis told Sanchez-Mayen she would just issue him a ticket before changing her mind and taking him into custody.
“You’re going to write me a ticket?” Sanchez-Mayen asked.
“No, you’re going to take the ride today. I’ve decided that you’re going to actually go to jail today. Far too many problems with you,” Gaddis responded. “We’re getting all kinds of complaints. Can’t be doing this. You get tickets all the time. You don’t care. You don’t change your ways,” she explained.
The complaint states Officer Thacker arrived soon after in a police van. He handcuffed Sanchez-Mayen and also used a metal belly chain, which hindered the use of his arms.
Sanchez-Mayen’s lawyers told CNN their client had “prior arrests” for loitering and trespassing. Records obtained by WFTS show he had been issued more than two dozen previous citations. In this most recent case, Sanchez-Mayen’s attorney says his client was wrongfully detained when he was found sleeping in a vacant lot.
In the bodycam video, Thacker said aloud that any crime should be a felony after a certain number of incidents. “A year in jail would probably settle it,” he said.
After placing Sanchez-Mayen in the back of the van, the suit says Thacker drove the van “in a reckless manner and at an unsafe rate of speed” and deliberately slammed on the brakes at a red light.
The van’s surveillance video shows Sanchez-Mayen being thrown off his seat and hitting his head, rendering him unconscious. Thacker drove all the way to jail before stopping the van. He opened its rear doors and found Sanchez-Mayen “lying face down, motionless, unconscious, and unresponsive,” the complaint states.
The video shows Thacker trying to wake Sanchez-Mayen before pulling his unconscious body out of the vehicle.
“They literally pulled him out by his ankles where his head could be seen bopping on the floor and bopping on the door and bopping on the bumper. And ultimately bopping on the pavement,” Sanchez-Mayen’s attorney, Thomas Scholar, told CNN.
The lawsuit states Thacker didn’t enable the van video at first, but he turned it on after he heard a loud crash in the back. The van camera’s technology records 30 seconds before being turned on, Scholaro told CNN.
“They didn’t pull over. They didn’t check on him; they didn’t render him aid, they just kept driving,” Mayen’s sister, Elsa Hernandez, told WFLA. “Then when they got to the jail they didn’t treat him like a human being, they literally pulled him out by his ankles.”
Sanchez-Mayen was diagnosed with spinal cord injuries after the ride, leaving him paralyzed in all of his limbs, the suit explains. Doctors had to amputate both of his legs above the knee. His sister says he’s now staying at a nursing home.
His trespassing charge was also dismissed in county court because the area where Sanchez-Mayen was sleeping didn’t have any “No Trespassing” signs in the proper places, according to the suit.
Thacker is accused of excessive force and intentional battery, and Gaddis is accused of false arrest and malicious prosecution. The suit also accuses the city of negligent supervision and training.
“The St. Petersburg Police Department denies the claims and trusts in the judicial process,” police said in a statement. “The Department defers all media inquiries on pending litigation to the City of St. Petersburg City Attorney’s Office.”
Sanchez-Mayen seeks a jury trial.
His case bears striking similarities to that of Freddie Gray, who died in 2015 after suffering spinal injuries during a police van transport in Baltimore. Six officers were charged in connection to his death, but none was ultimately convicted.
Watch the video showing the St. Petersburg police ride below:
