A nearly one million dollar injury lawsuit against the city and a former police officer could be settled for just $10,000 if approved by the Metro Council this evening.
Three “quick knee strikes to the back”. That’s how the lawsuit describes the patrolman’s actions against Ryan Haraway in 2013 while he sat in a wheelchair with his hands cuffed behind his back and his legs restrained. His vertebrae was fractured.
Haraway, who was in custody at the time, had been taken to General Hospital to treat minor wounds resulting from a scuffle with police during an earlier arrest.
It was all captured on surveillance camera footage.
Metro contends that it is difficult to prove
whether it was the knee strikes that caused the injury or his earlier resistance while being arrested.
But a subsequent investigation by Metro Police’s
Office of Professional Accountability
determined that Officer Chad Knaggs had violated department policy. Not just due to excessive force, but because he never reported the incident.
Knaggs was allowed to resign in lieu of termination on May 2014 after a 30 day suspension. Shortly after, he was hired by the Spring Hill Police Department.
A
Channel 5 investigation
at the time questioned the circumstances around his departure and found out that Metro Police had violated policy by failing to notify the state board about his infractions.
They also discovered that in the five years prior, more than 40 other Metro officers were allowed to resign from their jobs in the midst of conduct allegations.
The case has been making its way through the courts for almost three years. Haraway has spent most of that time behind bars on other charges.
Though many of the facts were undisputed, the lawsuit did make a larger claim that would be difficult to prove — that the city failed to properly train police officers on its own policies regarding use of force.
If the settlement goes through, Haraway would walk away with just $10,000 from Metro and $1,000 from Knaggs.
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