LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Shortly after standing up to ask when he would be released from Louisville's jail on home incarceration, surveillance and body camera video shows jail officers pin Christian Lopes to the floor, putting him in a chokehold and punching him repeatedly last September.
An arrest report claims Lopes had taken an “aggressive stance” with officers and resisted before striking an officer in the left forearm.
But in a lawsuit and interviews with Lopes and his attorneys, five officers are accused of assaulting Lopes when he was already under control, kneeing and punching him multiple times for mouthing off.
“While he was defenseless, officers took it upon themselves to violently punch him in the face to send him a message,” said Louisville attorney Shaun Wimberly Sr. in an interview on Wednesday.
The suit also names the city and Metro Corrections as defendants, claiming the alleged assault of Lopes is just one of many to occur in the jail over the last several years. It argues there is a systemic problem being ignored or covered up by top officials.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Jefferson Circuit Court, claims the officers also threw Lopes headfirst into a concrete wall while his hands were handcuffed behind his back.
Major Darrell Goodlett, a spokesman for Metro Corrections, declined to comment, saying the department has not yet seen the lawsuit. The five officers, including one sergeant, are still with the department, but Goodlett said he could not immediately say whether there has been an internal investigation.
The city does not discuss pending litigation.
The incident occurred after a Sept. 1, 2022, court hearing, in which Lopes was before a judge on a probation violation and ordered to be released on seven days home incarceration.
He claims he asked officers questions in a jail waiting area about when he would be getting out. The body camera footage obtained by WDRB does not capture what Lopes says to officers.
Footage from a ceiling surveillance camera shows Lopes standing up and an officer approaching him. The camera does not clearly show what immediately happens next, but within seconds Lopes and multiple officers are struggling on the ground.
Officers Bryan Trowell and Andre Cardwell approached Lopes, according to the lawsuit, and then rushed him as he was backing away, grabbing him and pinning him between a row of chairs.
Trowell placed Lopes in a chokehold and swung him to the ground where other officers pinned him to the ground, the lawsuit claims.
While on the ground and “totally vulnerable,” the officers used their knees and fists to repeatedly strike Lopez, causing injuries, according to Wimberly.
At one point, Officer Michael Ray pushed another officer off of Lopes, “regained his position to get a clear shot at Lopes’ face, while he was defenseless .. and started to deliver power punches to my client’s face,” Wimberly said in an interview. “(Lopes) was already in control. They were trying to send a message to him.”
In body cam video, Lopes told the officers they were petty and “I didn’t do nothing to you all. … You all just beat the sh** out of me. Why did you do that?”
Lopes said he still has scars from the beating and called the entire situation “devastating.”
“You can clearly see in the video that I did not resist, I just tried to get away from them” he said in an interview. “I was just trying to ask questions.”
Wimberly argues officers had gained control of Lopes and that's when the incident should have ended.
“Pulling away from an officer gets you beat so bad that your face is red, blood coming from your eye,” Wimberly said. “He wasn’t fighting back. The video shows. …They went above and beyond and committed an assault on my client.”
Louisville attorney Shaun Wimberly Sr.
He was then handcuffed and taken back to a cell where a nurse was brought in to check him out.
“I didn’t punch nobody,” Lopes said, according to body cam video. “You all don’t got to do all of that.”
"Why did you all whoop me?" Lopes asked.
"When you address (inaudible) like that, that's what happens," he is told by one officer.
When he is told to sit down after getting treatment from a nurse, Lopes loudly told the officer, "No, I didn't punch anybody."
He is told to "sit the f*** down" and officers grabbed him and threw him headfirst into the cell’s brick wall, while he was still handcuffed, according to the lawsuit and body cam.
The officers then lifted Lopes off the ground and again shoved him toward the wall before cuffing his feet, according to body cam footage.
Lopes was then told he was being charged with assault for striking an officer.
“Please don’t,” Lopes said.
As they are uncuffing him in the cell, he told them, “You all know you all had fun.”
“No one has fun doing this,” an officer responded.
Last October, a Jefferson County grand jury dismissed Lopes' felony assault charges and amended them to misdemeanor assault. The case is still pending.
“When did he strike an officer?” Wimberly asked in the interview Wednesday. “That’s a question that needs to be answered.”
A defense attorney for Lopes declined to comment.
The lawsuit also alleges that since at least 2015 Metro Corrections has ignored a “custom of excessive force used by its officers” against inmates.
“This is the culture of the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections,” Wimberly said. “… The officials of our city need to be held accountable and prevent others from being subjected to this type of treatment.”
The lawsuit cites five examples, including one from Dec. 15 where an officer was sentenced to three years in prison after attacking an inmate and breaking his jaw.
Metro Corrections officials are accused of fabricating evidence to support findings in favor of officers accused of use of force, failing to document required reports of use of force and not properly disciplining officers who are found to have committed the act.
“This is the city’s responsibility,” Wimberly said. “They knew about it but ignored it.”
Metro Corrections Director Jerry Collins is a defendant in the suit, accused of “deliberate interference and reckless disregard” in ensuring proper investigations and discipline.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
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