RALEIGH, North Carolina - September 6, 2011 - A man who was eating a taco at a Raleigh bus stop says a cop swept-kicked him to the ground, broke his leg and arrested him, then hauled him before a judge who sentenced him to 30 days in jail for contempt because he could not stand on his broken leg.
Lynwood Artis said that after buying his dinner, he quietly began to eat his taco, waiting for the bus, when Officer James Rollins approached him on foot, and asked if a beer can was his.
Artis leaned forward and saw what appeared to be a discarded can of beer that had been concealed from his view by a newspaper rack. He told Rollins it was not his. Rollins asked him for ID, then without either warning or being told he was under arrest, he twisted Artis' arm behind his back and then swept-kicked his legs from the side and threw him to the ground. Artis felt and heard his lower left leg crack when Rollins swept-kicked him.
Artis was taken to the Wake County Detention Center, where, unable to get out of the car on his own, and at his own insistence, he was put into a wheelchair. He was charged with "misdemeanor open container malt beverage and disorderly conduct," then wheeled before a magistrate.
He says sheriff's deputies "continued to heckle" him as he was wheeled into court - they told him there was nothing wrong with him. Artis told the judge that "he could not stand because his leg was broken."
It took Magistrate Bostrom 4 minutes to find Artis in contempt of court and sentence him to 30 days in jail, with no bond, Artis said. Artis spent the night in jail without medical attention, and says that "several times during Artis' stay in the holding cell he had to urinate on the floor where he lay" because jailers would not bring him a wheelchair.
Nearly 12 hours after he was arrested, a nurse finally inspected his leg and ordered him to be sent immediately to a hospital emergency room.
Artis seeks punitive damages for false arrest, false imprisonment, battery, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
