LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A 71-year-old man who was yanked out his home while wearing a bathrobe, thrown to the pavement face first and then handcuffed by police has received $250,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming Louisville and Jeffersontown officers used excessive force.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Frank Serapiglia in March 2020 was dismissed this March after being settled, with Louisville Metro Police liable for $245,000 and the Jeffersontown Police Department paying the other $5,000. 

“This settlement reflects the substantial pain and suffering inflicted on Mr. Serapiglia as a result of the excessive force of the LMPD officers involved,” said attorney Thomas Clay, who represented Serapiglia.

LMPD did not immediately respond to a request as to whether any officers were punished. 

Serapiglia was in his kitchen drinking coffee and reading the news early in the morning on Sept. 18, 2019, when he heard yelling and noticed several police officers outside his home with guns drawn, according to the lawsuit.

Serapiglia thought officers must be pursuing a suspect running through his neighborhood. Then he heard banging on his front door.

He didn’t know police were responding to a 911 call made by Serapiglia’s ill wife while he was downstairs. The woman had called 911 in a “delusional state” claiming her husband had shot her in the head, according to the lawsuit.

As Serapiglia was opening the door in his bathrobe, a police officer reached in the house, grabbed him and threw him to the pavement, where he landed face first, according to police body cam video that captured the incident.

"Get on the f***ing ground!" an officer yelled, as another officer handcuffed him and kneeled on Serapiglia's back.

"You ********, what the heck are you doing?" Serapiglia said to officers. "Please, I can't breathe ... What the hell did I do?"

After the incident, Louisville Metro Police Officer David Stettler told Sgt. Jerome Passafume that Serapiglia was "non-compliant" and wouldn't step outside.

When Officer William Kline grabbed Serapiglia, "he lost his footing and fell to the ground," Stettler said, according to body camera video.

Kline confirmed that account to the sergeant.

"As Dave said, he wouldn't come out, wouldn't get on the ground," Kline said, according to body cam video. "We pulled him out and he lost his footing and fell."

The body camera video challenged the official police narrative of the events.

For example, Kline said Serapiglia opened the door but wouldn't come out. But the video shows Kline immediately reaching into the house and hurling the man to the ground outside.

"Take these ****ing handcuffs off me; you don't think I'm a ****ing problem, I opened the door for you!," Serapiglia yelled.

"What did she call the police for?" Serapiglia repeatedly asked about his wife. "There's no ****ing problem. What the heck is the deal?"

As Mrs. Serapiglia is brought downstairs and outside, disheveled but not hurt, an officer reported to dispatch that “there was no shooting,” according to body cam footage.

"We're out," a J-Town officers says, according to body cam. Another officer laughs.

When police don't respond to his questions, Serapiglia asks his wife why she called 911.

"I thought you shot me," she quietly responds.

"What?!," Serapiglia yells. "What!?!"

Serapiglia explained to police that his wife had previously been hospitalized, had seizures and mental health issues.

After several minutes, an unidentified officer comes up and asks why Serapiglia is still handcuffed on the ground.

"What's going on?" the officer asks.

Officer Stettler responds that Serapiglia is "still pissed," according to his body cam video.

Meanwhile, Sgt. Passafume and Serapiglia are arguing about how police handled the incident.

"What did you think we were going to do?" the sergeant asks him, "say 'Hey good morning, did you shoot your wife in the head?'"

Serapiglia yells back that police could see he was in his bathrobe and not a threat.

"You could see I had nothing in my ****ing hands," he said.

He was taken to the Norton Brownsboro Hospital Emergency room with multiple injuries, including head trauma, according to the lawsuit.

His wife called 911 in a "delusional state" and "calmly but vaguely reported that she had been shot in the head but didn’t know if she was bleeding," the suit claimed. "She did not sound like she was in any distress or in any pain," or seem afraid.

Jeffersontown Police, who responded first, according to the lawsuit, saw Serapiglia’s wife at the window in her bedroom and “should have known at that point she had not been shot.”

As officer Kline's body cam video comes to an end, Serapiglia is on his knees trying to crawl up his porch, not allowing anyone to touch him.

He looks back and tells them, "thank you guys, for ****ing protecting me."

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