A New Jersey man accused several police officers of violently attacking him without cause outside his local bar two years ago, and then illegally arresting him.
Gregory Williams, a resident of Bloomfield, New Jersey, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Jersey City, its police department and police chief, and several police officers following the alleged unprovoked attack in 2023.
The complaint states that on March 4, 2023, Williams visited the Halftime Bar & Grill when he was stopped by one female officer who “aggressively and vulgarly” ordered him to move his car.
Williams complied and moved his car, but when he approached the bar’s entrance again, a male officer blocked his path.
The cop did not explain why he stopped Williams, but only moments later, another officer grabbed Williams from behind and tried to drag him to the ground, the complaint states.
At that point, four officers restrained Williams’ arms behind his back, and one punched him in the face, causing him to briefly lose consciousness, according to the suit.
Then, Williams was “slammed to the ground, and his face was repeatedly and forcefully pressed into the concrete sidewalk,” the complaint states.
The officers then allegedly placed Williams in a police vehicle, covered his head with a bag, and continued to assault him.
Williams claimed he never fought back or resisted arrest. The complaint states that he was taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation, then booked into a county jail where he was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, throwing bodily fluid on a police officer, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and failure to disperse. Those charges were later dismissed, according to the suit.
The suit asserts several civil rights violations, excessive use of force, assault, battery, and conspiracy.
Williams, a Hispanic man, also alleged that the Jersey City Police Department has a “longstanding and well-documented pattern of using excessive force” against Black and Hispanic civilians.
The complaint also accuses the police agency of “failing to discipline officers who engage in constitutional violations, and inadequately training and supervising its officers regarding the use of force and constitutional rights of individuals.”
As an example, the suit cites a 2021 lawsuit revealing how one JCPD officer faced no substantial disciplinary action after facing seven separate excessive force investigations in five years.
Williams also cited another case similar to his own in which a Jersey City man sued the city’s police officers, alleging they launched an unprovoked attack on him in 2016, then charged and jailed him for six months. The charges were later dismissed, and the city settled the lawsuit for $25,000.
The case of Miguel Feliz, which made national headlines, was also included in the complaint as another example of heinous police brutality. Feliz was an innocent bystander whose car was struck by another vehicle that was being chased by police in 2017.
The crash caused Feliz’s car to catch fire, and when Feliz emerged from his vehicle engulfed in flames, he was beaten and dragged by JCPD officers. The officers involved in the beating were charged and took plea deals that barred them from working in law enforcement in New Jersey.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory, statutory, and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.
