By The Vanguard Staff
LOS ANGELES, CA – A federal lawsuit filed here late last week claimed a “security guard was left blind in one eye following a violent arrest by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies outside a popular Inglewood hookah lounge he was assigned to protect.”
According to the pleading, Blake Anderson, 25, escorted a woman to her car at about 1:15 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2022, but an LASD cruiser rolled into the Good Batch Hookah Lounge parking lot. A deputy hopped out and approached Anderson from his right side.”
Anderson’s lawyers said previous injuries had left Anderson with hearing loss in his right ear and a healing ruptured right eye, and he wasn’t able to see an officer approaching from his right side. The officer allegedly grabbed him, and threw him into a window “with no probable cause.”
Bystander’s video of the arrest shows, said Anderson, a second deputy “joining the first to put Anderson in a chokehold while the first deputy punches him as they pull him to the ground.”
SURVEILLANCE VIDEO AND THE LAWSUIT CAN BE FOUND AT: https://bit.ly/3s7Z3wJ
Anderson’s head was, according to the pleading, slammed into the ground, officers hit him with a gun, pressed it to the back of his head, threatened to shoot him and used racial epithets during the arrest. He now claims he lost all sight in his right eye upon regaining consciousness after his head hit the ground, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges actions by LASD and the “as-yet unidentified deputies of excessive force, unreasonable search and seizure, and violating the Long Beach man’s civil rights.”
The lawsuit also accuses the department and deputies of “denying Anderson’s right to adequate medical care. Following his arrest, Anderson was taken to Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, where he wasn’t told of his treatment plan, which was only shared with LASD deputies, who decided to take him to jail.”
Doctors, the pleading adds, believed Anderson “needed more extensive medical care and should have remained at the hospital, the lawsuit states. Anderson suffered several hematomas around his head, nerve damage to his legs and arms, and a dislocated shoulder in addition to his eye injury.”
“These Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies jumped Blake Anderson like they were gang members, brutally beating him without giving him any chance to comply,” said civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone. “Blake was working to support his family and now his injuries are preventing him from working.”
“The video not only shows the deputy placing a gun to Mr. Anderson’s head but also intentionally and forcefully slamming his head into the store window and sidewalk with an alarming amount of force,” DeSimone said. “This incident is a clear indicator that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is in need of reform to prevent the escalation of violence where none is warranted.”
V. James DeSimone Law and co-counsels, civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Jasmine Mines, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Los Angeles.
