Today, my office, along with Dan Stormer and Brian Olney at civil rights powerhouse firm Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai, filed a lawsuit for Michael Moore, a 63-year-old Black man who was suffocated by an LAPD officer while strapped to a hospital gurney. The officer didn’t realize another officer captured it all on his bodycamera. The officers charged Moore with multiple felonies, all of which he beat at trial.
Our press release and the video of the incident are below. Our complaint is here:
Today, lawyers from the Civil Rights law firms Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai and the Law Office of Matthew Strugar sued the Los Angeles Police Department and its officers for arresting, beating, and suffocating Michael Moore, a 63-year-old legally blind African American man.
Los Angeles Police Department officers tackled, beat, and arrested Mr. Moore in the doorway of his home in South Los Angeles. The officers then transported Mr. Moore to California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles. While Mr. Moore lay strapped to a hospital gurney with his arms and legs immobilized and surrounded by half a dozen hospital security guards and multiple LAPD officers, LAPD Officer Choi pulled a towel over Mr. Moore’s face and cupped his hands over Mr. Moore’s mouth and nose, blocking Mr. Moore’s airway. Mr. Moore cried out, “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!! I can’t breathe!!!” Ignoring Mr. Moore’s frantic pleas, Officer Choi continued suffocating Mr. Moore, covering Mr. Moore’s face for a full minute even after Mr. Moore lost consciousness. Another officer’s body-worn camera recorded the shocking incident.
The LAPD officers had responded to Mr. Moore’s apartment that day after a house guest assaulted him. Moore tried to refuse their assistance, but the officers, who knew that Mr. Moore is blind, crept up to his apartment without announcing their presence, tackled him to the ground, slammed his head against the floor, and beat him.
Mr. Moore was charged with assaulting the paramedics and a police officer and with resisting arrest. Unable to afford bail and unwilling to plead guilty to crimes he did not commit, Mr. Moore spent 139 days in jail awaiting trial. A jury acquitted him of all charges. He remains deeply traumatized by the incident.
Since regaining his freedom, Mr. Moore has worked with a community organization he founded before his arrest to organize neighborhood cleanups and provide job opportunities for at-risk adults. Mr. Moore named his organization Katie Moore Neighborhood Development after his mother, who is in her 90s.
Attorney Brian Olney stated, “Police officers are sworn to serve and protect, not torture and abuse. The officers’ own video plainly shows an LAPD officer suffocating Mr. Moore while he lies immobilized on a hospital gurney. This conduct is sickening and outrageous.”
Attorney Matthew Strugar said, “Five years after ‘I can’t breathe’ ignited a national uprising against police violence, these officers were filmed nearly suffocating another Black man desperately yelling those very same words. Mr. Moore suffered immensely—and might very well have died—at the hands of these officers. The only way to prevent police violence in the future is to impose severe penalties for such violence in the past. The LAPD must be held accountable.”
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.