LAPD settles lawsuit by man strapped to gurney during arrest

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Police Department will pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit by a legally blind man who said he was beaten, strapped to a hospital gurney and nearly suffocated during an arrest three years ago, attorneys said Wednesday.

The civil lawsuit filed by Michael Moore alleged unlawful seizure, excessive force, battery and negligence.

Moore was arrested in February 2019 when he called police to his home in South Los Angeles after he said he was attacked by a family friend.

Moore, who has a history of mental illness, was taken to a hospital where he was secured to a gurney and an LAPD officer held a towel over his mouth and nose until he passed out, the lawsuit alleged. The incident was captured on body camera footage from another officer.

Moore, who was 62 at the time, was arrested because officers “misperceived the effects of his disabilities as criminal activity,” the court filing said.

“To prevent police violence in the future is to impose penalties for such violence in the past,” Matthew Strugar, one of Moore’s attorneys, said in a statement announcing the settlement. The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately comment on the agreement.

Moore was charged with assaulting a peace officer and resisting, and spent more than four months in jail awaiting a trial before a jury acquitted him in July 2019 of all charges.