2015/04/24  – A Hattiesburg man has filed a lawsuit against the city of Hattiesburg alleging that police officers broke his neck.

According to the lawsuit, police paralyzed Jordan Chase Borgognoni after “placing him in handcuffs by slamming him face first into the ground while putting a knee in his back.”

The suit also states the police used reckless indifference by “withholding critical and time-sensitive emergency medical treatment for an obvious spinal cord injury” which caused him to become a quadriplegic.

The Hattiesburg Police Department did not respond to emailed questions Thursday seeking comment.

According to the lawsuit, Borgognoni drove a friend’s SUV to an apartment complex where he lived with his mother on July 23, 2012. Court documents said that he drove through the parking lot and there were no parking spaces, so he “drove the vehicle over the curb.”

Borgognoni was dating a woman at the time who lived in the complex, and he got into an argument with her. Documents state that Borgognoni’s mother overheard the argument and got involved. Three phone calls were made to police, and officers responded. When they found Borgognoni and his girlfriend still arguing, they asked him to turn around and place his hands behind his back, at which point they handcuffed him. Borgognoni sat at the bottom of the stairs while police talked to the girlfriend and his mother.

According to court documents and Borgognoni’s lawyer, Zach Bonner, Borgognoni told police he was ready to go to jail so he could bond out and go home. Court documents state the officers said Borgognoni said, “You’re going to get your money’s worth tonight,” which led them to believe he planned to be difficult.

Court documents also state that police officer Chad Harrison told Borgognoni that he would not be bonding out because he was being charged with a felony. Borgognoni responded with “What the (expletive) are you talking about?” and was allegedly slammed face first into the ground.

Bonner said, to his knowledge, the Hattiesburg Police Department never initiated an investigation into the incident through their internal affairs division, and that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the FBI were not called on to look into it by the department.

There are varying accounts of how Borgognoni ended up on the ground, Bonner said. In one police deposition, he was falling and was caught by the officers on either side of him. Another police officer’s deposition says when he fell both officers fell with him and they all ended up on the ground. In an eyewitness account, he was slammed to the ground and a knee was put in his back.

“All he knows is that he saw Chase and knew he was someone who lived at the complex,” Bonner said of the eyewitness. “He saw the cops do a takedown, and one of them put a knee in his back.”

Bonner said the police department’s version of what happened was not reliable.

In Hattiesburg’s prisoner injury report, Harrison filled out the entry for the cause of the injury with the answer, “possible vehicle accident injury.” But after Borgognoni hit the ground, Bonner said, he told the officers that he couldn’t feel his legs.

Police stated in court documents that they didn’t believe Borgognoni because he had allegedly been cursing at them and had allegedly tried to headbutt and kick them. They said it’s not unusual for people who are being arrested to feign injury.

Bonner said Harrison went to get his patrol car to drive Borgognoni to jail and during that time he called for backup on the radio and called his supervisor, Lt. Chris Johnson, from his cellphone. When Johnson arrived, he asked Borgognoni what was going on, to which he replied, “these stupid … just broke my back.”

Eyewitness testimony states the officers took Borgognoni to the cruiser and he wasn’t using his legs. Johnson called an ambulance to meet them at the jail. When they arrived at the hospital, Harrison asked for blood to be drawn, although Borgognoni said in an affidavit that at no time was he asked whether he was drinking and driving, whether he would consent to a field sobriety test, or whether he would consent to any search for his blood alcohol content.

Bonner said the police are not being granted qualified immunity in this case, or the leeway given by the court when they inflict injury in the course of reasonable police work.

“Our timeline fits, theirs makes no sense whatsoever. On one of their versions, he doesn’t hit the ground at all. If he’s not injured in a car and he didn’t fall, how did he break his back?” Bonner said.

A court date set has not yet been set.

Source: The Clarion Ledger 

Therese Apel