CHARLESTON – A federal judge has approved the $2 million settlement in a fatal Dunbar police brutality civil lawsuit with the estate of a man who was killed while in custody.
U.S. District Judge Irene Berger approved the settlement during an August 15 hearing that attorneys for the victim’s family called emotional.
“This is a nightmare that no parent should ever have to suffer through,” Michael Scott Sr. said in a prepared statement. It was such a devastating blow to our family and has rocked our sense of safety in our community. We love and miss him. No amount of money can ever bring him back, but we hope that this helps show the seriousness of the case and that we have stood up for our son who did not deserve to have this happen.
diTrapano
“We are thankful for all of the support and well wishes the family has received and hope that any message that can be taken from this tragedy will help to protect someone else’s son in the future. We hope that he can rest in peace and know that we love him and have fought for him and his memory.”
The settlement figure includes attorney fees, court costs, funeral and medical bills as well as compensatory damages.
“While no amount of money can bring back a son, a brother, or a loved one, hopefully this can help to provide not only closure to this family but a sense of justice and accountability they certainly deserve, said L. Dante diTrapano, one of the attorneys representing the family. “The types of abuses alleged in this case have no place in our society, much less at the hands of law enforcement.
“This family has bravely stepped up and, in light of what they believe tragically happened to their son, have said that this type of injustice won’t be accepted. Not on their watch. Helping to shine a light on the type of conduct alleged through this case, we hope that someone else’s son, daughter, parent or loved one will be saved from future harm.”
Jesse Forbes, another attorney representing the family, said such an incident never should have happened.
The complaint, filed last September, claims excessive force by Dunbar police officers Zachary Winters and Adam Mason, including being power slammed to the pavement, caused his son’s death last summer. It says the officers were attempting to arrest Scott for an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor trespassing charge.
“This officer didn’t just slam Michael’s head to the pavement in a want-to-be wrestling move causing a lethal skull fracture,” Forbes said. “Instead, he went further. The allegations in the complaint detail that for the next two hours they used the weight of their authority as police officers to deprive Michael of the medical care he so desperately needed and ultimately his life.
“As alleged in the pleadings in this case, it’s an absolute tragedy that no family should have to endure.”
Scott’s death certificate said he died July 24, 2022, of “blunt force injuries to the head.” The certificate, filed with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources; Bureau For Public Health Vital Registration Office says the injuries occurred approximately two days before his death.
There have been no criminal charges filed against the officers, and both still are employed by the Dunbar Police Department.
“Defendant Winters began yelling, berating and threatening Michael Scott Jr.,” the original complaint states. “Defendant Mason arrived and was actively looking to see if he could find a reason to arrest or further detain Michael Scott Jr.”
They didn’t find any and let to continue patrols, according to the complaint. About 15 minutes later, Winters encountered Scott Jr. again after learning of an apparently outstanding warrant for misdemeanor trespassing. Scott Jr. was arrested.
Mason soon arrived to assist Winters, according to the complaint. Bodycam footage from Winters shows him cuffing Scott Jr. and searching him. It says Scott Jr. made no attempt to run or flee. But, the complaint says footage shows Winters yelling and screaming at Scott Jr. telling him not to pull away.
“Then, as shown on both defendant Winters and defendant Mason’s bodycam footage, with no provocation nor any valid justification, defendant Winters picked the cuffed and restrained Michael Scott Jr. up from behind and lifted his body off of the ground, slamming Michael Scott Jr.’s head onto the pavement of the street and causing catastrophic injuries to Michael Scott Jr.’s skull and head,” the complaint states. “Defendant Winters would later state that he ‘suplexed’ Michael Scott Jr. because he ‘ran’ from him.
“Defendant Winters actually slammed Mr. Scott’s head into the pavement through the ‘suplex’ maneuver, which caused him to suffer an epidural hematoma and three basilar skull fractures that ultimately resulted in his death.”
A suplex is a professional wrestling move where a wrestler picks up the opponent off the mat and, using their own body weight, throws the opponent into the air over their center of gravity causing the opponent to be airborne and land violently.
“Mason stated to defendant Winters, immediately after the violent slamming of Mr.Scott through the ‘suplex’ maneuver in which Mr. Scott was slammed on his head into the pavement, ‘All I see is you picked him up and slammed him,’” the bodycam footage shows, according to the complaint.
Mason then contacted Metro 911 to request a medic be sent to the Dunbar Police Department to evaluate Scott Jr. Winters and Mason then tried to clean the streaming blood from the face, head and ear area of Scott Jr. at the scene.
“They did not request or call for the paramedic to come to the scene, but instead cleaned up the injury and the large amounts of blood and then transported Mr. Scott from the scene to the Dunbar Police Department in defendant Winters’ cruiser,” the complaint states.
It says Winters’ bodycam video and audio as well as footage from the holding area of the Dunbar Police Department shows “a dangerous and shocking series of events” following the suplex incident.
“When paramedics arrived, defendant Winters downplays the injuries to Michael Scott Jr., claiming he fell when attempting to run from him and that his earring had been torn by the pavement when he fell running, which had not occurred,” the complaint states. “Further, Michael Scott Jr. directly told the paramedics at the station, as can be heard on defendant Winters’ bodycam, that he wished to go to the hospital as he was concerned about internal injuries.”
The complaint says the paramedics waited while Winters and Mason had a discussion with their bodycams turned off outside of the holding area. When they return to the holding area, it says the footage shows the officers stare at Scott Jr., who did some paperwork with the paramedics, who then note Scott Jr. declined transport to a hospital.
An hour or so later, Scott Jr. was transported to South Central Regional Jail in Charleston. During transport, bodycam footage shows Scott moaning, saying the pain and pressure in his head was worse, begging for help and asking to be taken to the hospital. Winters tells Scott he isn’t taking him to a hospital, only to jail.
At the jail, bodycam footage shows Winters cuffing and restraining Scott, who is nearly falling over and is leaning on a wall to support himself. It shows Winters shouting at Scott to tell him to stop leaning on the wall and to keep walking. It also shows Scott needing assistance from two correctional officers to stand while he is processed through the body scanner.
As Scott continued to moan in pain and lay his head on a counter, Winters continues to claim Scott is fine and that he’s faking his condition.
“SCRJ guards and nursing staff explained to defendant Winters that they did not believe Michael Scott Jr. was medically clear or safe to enter the jail,” the complaint states. “Defendant Winters then began arguing with the staff that he had a jail commitment and that he was leaving Michael Scott Jr. at the jail.”
Winters again said the blood from Scott’s ear was caused by the earring being torn from his ear, according to the complaint. It also says jail staff told Winters he would need to take Scott to a hospital. Winters argued then messaged Mason, who had a phone call with a lieutenant at the jail.
“Mason went so far as to represent to the SCRJ Lieutenant that he had spoken with both the Dunbar city attorney and Dunbar municipal judge and that they had confirmed that once a jail commitment was issued that the Dunbar police officers would be able to drop a person at the jail and that they were not responsible for taking them for further medical clearance,” the complaint states.
“Winters was callous and uncaring, with absolutely no remorse for his actions injuring Michael Scott Jr. as he watched Michael Scott Jr.’s condition continue to deteriorate and the internal head injuries continue to manifest. … Winters continued to attempt to mislead the jail and medical staff telling them that Mr. Scott was putting on a show and faking his condition or that he possible was having a drug overdose. This resulted in jail staff and medical staff administering Narcan to Mr. Scott.”
The complaint says Winters told Scott to “stop putting on a show” and told staff, “He decided to run from … didn’t work out” and “tried to run from me so he got suplexed.”
When a jail staff told Winters that Scott may have defecated on himself, the complaint says Winters answered in an uncaring manner that “he thought they had cooked salmon at the police station earlier and that could have been the smell as it ‘smelled like ass.’”
Talking to Mason on the phone, Winters told him, “I’m watching Michael Scott Jr. basically die right here.”
Eight minutes after Scott arrived at the jail, staff contacted the Charleston Fire Department for his “alarming and deteriorating physical condition.” Jail staff told CFD personnel they believed Scott had been beaten by the officer who brought him to the jail.
After Scott was transported, a nurse from Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital contacted Winters to see what had happened because Scott couldn’t communicate.
According to the complaint, Winters told the nurse Scott had been “picked up and placed on the ground.”
Scott died on July 24 at CAMC. The injuries he sustained included an epidural hematoma and basilar skull fractures. The complaint says the prevention of appropriate medical treatment caused Scott pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, fear and led to his death.
Both the city and Mason have other excessive force complaints pending in federal court, and the complaint says other cases have been filed in state court. In addition, it says the Dunbar Police Department recently changed its use of force policy to allow “further escalation and to include striking of a subject’s head.”
Forbes said police officers need to be respected and trusted, but they also have to be held accountable “not only to provide accountability to the victims, but also to send a message to any other potential bad actors that such conduct won’t be tolerated in our communities.”
“Hopefully this family’s efforts help to restore faith in the law enforcement community as a whole and also to give them a sense of having done all they could to achieve some level of justice in his memory,” he said. “The shocking disregard for basic human life alleged and described in the Complaint in this case is something you expect to see in a story about a third world dictatorship not something happening on the streets of a small town in West Virginia.”
DiTrapano agreed.
“The allegations in this case are truly shocking and should never happen,” he said. “This settlement should help the family begin to heal but it will also hopefully send a message to anyone in the future that you can’t act in the ways described in this civil complaint and expect to get away with it.
“We have been extremely honored to have represented the estate and to have helped to provide some sense of accountability and closure to this family that should never have gone through this tragedy. This case should be a message to all that would use their authority in the wrong way that they will be held accountable so long as brave families such as this one step forward and don’t tolerate such actions. Michael Scott Sr. has honored his son and hopefully this will help to begin to allow him and the rest of the family to heal.”
The estate is being represented by diTrapano of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston and by Forbes of Forbes Law Offices in Charleston. The City of Dunbar and Mason are being represented by Wendy Greve and Vanston of Pullin Fowler Flanagan Brown & Poe in Charleston. Winters is being represented by Sandra Henson Kinney and Wright of Lewis Gianola in Charleston.
U.S. District Court case number 2:22-cv-00419
