OCEAN CITY – A Massachusetts man, allegedly stabbed during a fight in September 2020 and later allegedly tased by an Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officer, earlier this year filed a civil suit against the department, the officer and the police chief seeking $500,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
Earlier this year, Lucas Joaquim, now 23, of Peabody, Mass., filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking damages against an OCPD officer, the police chief and the department, via the Mayor and Council, after he was allegedly tased during a fight in the resort on September 26, 2020. The suit is seeking $400,000 in compensatory damages and another $100,000 in punitive damages against the named defendants in the case.
In the complaint, Joaquim asserts he was unknowingly stabbed during an assault by assailants. Joaquim, in the complaint, asserts an OCPD officer arriving on the scene of the incident deployed his conducted electrical weapon (CEW), or Taser, on him as he got up from the ground.
“While the plaintiff was being assaulted by the assailant, the plaintiff unknowingly suffered a stab would to the left side of his torso from another assailant during the time of the assault,” the complaint reads. “The officer appeared, at which time the assailant began to flee the scene of the assault. As the plaintiff stood to his feet and turned around, the officer approached the plaintiff. The plaintiff raised both hands up, not resisting nor aggressive, and immediately thereafter, without the threat of imminent harm, the officer discharged a Taser, or a conducted electrical weapon, twice in the plaintiff’s torso.”
It’s important to note Joaquim was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, disorderly conduct and affray following the incident. Each of those charges were placed on the stet, or inactive, docket last July. It’s also important to note the complaint names the plaintiff’s assailant, but there is no court record of that individual’s arrest or any charges against him. The complaint goes on to allege what transpired after the officer deployed his Taser against the plaintiff.
OC better stand up for our LEOs and now cow down per usual. (i.e., settle and move on)
lmao! take a kid who was picked on in school give him two weeks of bs training a badge and a gun and whammo! you have a modern day police officer! do you really want to depend on this to protect you and your family?
This bogus lawsuit will never fly. There were no criminal convictions of the officers, and the whole thing was dismissed. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make some quick cash by the plaintiffs. Both of those idiots were given more than enough opportunity to comply with a lawful order by a police officer. When you repeatedly ignore those warnings, show your ass, and put on a show this is what happens.
As it stands now there is nothing to base this suit on, and the plaintiffs will have HUGE legal bills that they will be stuck with when this whole thing fails.