Man charged with murder files excessive force lawsuit against Davis jailers

By Kaitlyn Bancroft

Click here for updates on this story

    FARMINGTON, Utah (KSL) — An Ogden man charged with murder has filed a civil federal lawsuit claiming he was stabbed with scissors by a Davis County Jail officer and now suffers from ongoing nerve damage in his wrists.

Angel Christopher Abreu, 26, is charged in 2nd District Court with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and other charges accusing him and a 16-year-old boy of entering a trailer home in Layton on Sept. 27, 2018, and ordering all of the occupants to get on the floor. When Anthony Child, 26, refused to comply, Abreu fired 13 rounds at him, striking him twice in the back, according to charging documents. Child later died at a hospital in Preston, Idaho.

Abreu pleaded not guilty to all charges in November 2019. His trial is scheduled for January 2024.

But in the meantime, Abreu is raising allegations of his own.

He initially filed his lawsuit in U.S. District Court in September 2021 without legal aid, court records show. A memorandum filed in November 2021 lists a number of issues with Abreu’s filing, and he refiled last month, this time with an attorney’s help.

The suit names six Davis County Jail officers as defendants, as well as 10 John Does. It alleges excessive force, unnecessary rigor, and cruel and unusual punishment, and asks for damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

Stephanie Dinsmore, spokeswoman for the Davis County Sheriff’s Office, said officials are unable to comment on specifics of the allegations because the lawsuit is ongoing.

“We have trust in the courts and the judicial process and we look forward to defending these allegations should they ever be brought before a court of law,” she said in a statement.

The lawsuit states that on Sept. 26, 2020, a jail officer ordered Abreu be placed in handcuffs as part of a move to a different housing unit. When Abreu asked to pack his own property, the officer denied the request, it states.

Six named defendants as well as the 10 John Does entered Abreu’s cell. They were members of a Correctional Emergency Response Team, and they had been told that Abreu had a razor, that he had barricaded and flooded his cell, and that he was refusing to cooperate with demands, the lawsuit claims.

Abreu did not have a razor, the suit says, and he was “in fact, intending to comply with the move without use of force.”

When the response team “flooded” the room, they gave conflicting orders, making it impossible for Abreu to comply with one without contradicting another, according to the suit. He felt a “fierce pain” to his stomach as he was grabbed, and as he was pinned down by multiple officers, “he could feel the pain in his stomach become more intense to the point that it felt like a ripping of flesh.” He later learned that this was a stab wound, the lawsuit alleges.

The stab was made by scissors, which response team members carry to cut clothing from prisoners, according to the suit.

An ambulance was called and Abreu was carried by the handcuffs and the shackles around his ankles so that his body faced the ground, according to the lawsuit. This put a “significant” amount of pressure on his wrists.

He was then placed on a gurney on his stomach and an officer pushed his ankles to his back, sandwiching his handcuffs inbetween, the suit states. Abreu was eventually placed on his back on the gurney, forcing him to lay on his still-cuffed wrists.

“Mr. Abreu made repeated requests … to have his cuffs adjusted, expressing that he had the sensation of a loss of circulation and also expressing concern that the loss of feeling would affect his ability to work as a professional chef and barber (which was Mr. Abreu’s career path prior to his incarceration).” The lawsuit claims that officers refused to adjust the cuffs, both in the ambulance and at the hospital.

Additionally, when doctors determined that Abreu had suffered from a stab wound, “officers circulated a myth that Mr. Abreu caused his own stabbing by having a razor on his person,” the suit claims.

Abreu has since been diagnosed with paresthesia of his wrists and is unable to write or hold a book for long periods of time without pain or numbness rising from his hands to his elbows, according to the lawsuit.

“The force was intentional, reckless, or at least grossly negligent and in excess of what was reasonable,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants showed deliberate indifference in the way in which they handled Mr. Abreu through the entry into his cell and his transport to the hospital.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.