HOLYOKE — A federal lawsuit against Holyoke police is set to go to trial in December over HPD officers’ alleged beating of a Westfield man after he led officers on a chase through several municipalities seven years ago.
The lawsuit stems from a June 2014 incident, in which police allegedly beat Westfield resident John Smith Jr. following a vehicular pursuit that began in Holyoke. Smith’s complaint alleges that after police stopped his car and he presented no further danger to the public, an officer pistol-whipped him, after which he was dragged out of the car by his hair, punched, kicked and stunned with a Taser gun while on the ground “until — and even after — he lost consciousness.”
In March 2020, a federal judge ruled that the case could move forward on allegations that police used unreasonable and excessive force against Smith, and that the HPD failed to train officers on its use-of-force and vehicular pursuit policies.
U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV did agree with the defendants’ motion to throw out charges that police officers took part in a conspiracy to deprive him of his civil rights and that the HPD failed to investigate, supervise or discipline officers involved in the incident.
The lawsuit names the city of Holyoke, state trooper Thiago Miranda and three Holyoke police officers — James Parnell, Crystal Manzi and Samuel Del Valle. The defendants have denied the claims against them. An attorney representing Parnell, Del Valle and the city did not respond to requests for comment. Manzi’s attorney, Austin Joyce, declined to comment.
Attorney Joseph Kittredge, who is representing Miranda, said in a phone interview Friday that his client used only reasonable and necessary force to overcome Smith’s resistance to arrest.
“He led the police on an extensive pursuit, ramming cars, creating a very dangerous situation for the officers as well as the motoring general public,” he said, alleging that Smith’s resistance continued after officers pulled him out of his car. “Police officers have a difficult job out there.”
HPD Capt. Matthew Moriarty, who handles communications for the department, referred the Gazette to the city’s law department, which did not return several phone and email messages.
Smith has alleged that after he finished work cleaning windows for a Holyoke customer in 2014, he “had a conversation with a female who invited him to her apartment.” When he left, he said Holyoke police tried to stop him, with Manzi and another officer allegedly drawing their weapons. In depositions, police said Smith had backed his car the wrong way down a one-way street; Smith asserts that was because a police cruiser was blocking the street. The lawsuit says Smith was frightened he would be shot and fled.
Massachusetts State Police, including an MSP support helicopter, joined in the chase, which continued onto Interstate 91 and eventually into Westfield, the lawsuit says. Police used “stop sticks” to flatten Smith’s tires, and eventually used their cars to block Smith so he had no way to escape, the suit alleges.
The lawsuit alleges that Parnell approached Smith as he remained seated, posing no threat, and pistol-whipped him in the face. A group of officers then pulled Smith from the vehicle through the driver’s side window by his hair and arms, dragged him away from the vehicle, and threw him to the ground violently, the lawsuit says.
“Mr. Smith showed no sign of consciousness at this time and no reasonable officer would have believed that he posed a threat to anyone,” the suit says.
After removing Smith from the car, the lawsuit says Miranda punched him at least 10 times, other officers kicked him and both Manzi and Del Valle used their Tasers on his limp body. Some of the incident was captured on video by the MSP helicopter.
“When members of the MSP Air Support crew realized that Trooper Miranda was relentlessly beating Mr. Smith, the camera was intentionally turned away from the scene so that it would not continue recording the unlawful, assaultive conduct of the police officers against a helpless prisoner in their custody,” the lawsuit says.
Smith also alleged in his initial complaint the officers falsified their police reports, misrepresenting the level of resistance to arrest that Smith showed. As a result of the beating, Smith said he suffered injuries serious enough that he was transferred from Holyoke Medical Center to Baystate Medical Center.
In deciding to reject the defendants’ motion to dismiss the charges of excessive force, Saylor ruled that the threat Smith posed to the public during the chase “had diminished considerably” once he had been pulled from the vehicle. Viewing the evidence before him “in the light most favorable to the plaintiff,” Saylor found that the officers’ actions “violated the clearly established right to be free from excessive force, and a reasonable officer would have understood that those actions violated that right,” and that they were not entitled to qualified immunity on that claim.
The city and other defendants had also moved to dismiss the other charges in “summary judgment,” which is when a judge makes a ruling without a full trial. Saylor sided with them regarding the claim that the HPD failed to investigate or discipline the officers, as well as the claim of civil conspiracy.
The Gazette has previously obtained the HPD’s internal affairs log, documenting internal investigations the department has opened since 2010. The log does not name Parnell, Manzi or Del Valle in any investigation in 2014 or in subsequent years.
Saylor denied the city’s attempt to have thrown out the claim that it failed to train its officers properly. He noted that in a deposition, Manzi testified that she was not familiar with the department’s Taser-use policy, and had never been trained on the HPD’s pursuit policy.
“This is perhaps the most troubling evidence of failure to train,” the judge wrote. “Officer Manzi was ‘brand new’ to the force at the time and any lessons she had learned in her training should have been fresh in her mind.”
Saylor also highlighted Del Valle’s testimony and the fact that three or four Holyoke police cruisers became involved in the pursuit, suggesting that those officers may have been unaware of the department’s vehicular pursuit policies. He also said that the officers’ beating and use of a Taser on Smith, if credited, could be seen as a violation of the department’s use-of-force policy.
“There appears to be a genuine dispute of fact about whether the City broadly failed to train its officers on pursuit and use of force,” he wrote.
The case isn’t the only lawsuit that has been brought against the HPD on allegations of beating a suspect after a car chase. In 2013, a Holyoke man, Erick DeJesus, sued the department on allegations that officers “brutally” kicked and punched him while he was down during his arrest after fleeing from police in his car in 2010. That case was settled in 2015.
Last year, Holyoke settled a 2017 lawsuit that accused Holyoke police of beating a 12-year-old boy unconscious in 2014. After arresting the boy’s neighbor, who was reportedly shooting a gun into the air and at several cars, police officers reportedly saw the boy hiding and then running away. In depositions, officers admitted to tackling him, punching him in the head and body, and beating him with a baton.
In his decision allowing Smith’s case to move forward, Saylor said that those lawsuits — particularly the 2013 allegation of excessive force after a vehicular pursuit — “could give rise to a finding of deliberate indifference by the City of Holyoke.” He noted that vehicular pursuits of that nature are rare and are likely to “terminate in an adrenaline-filled, group encounter between police officers and a suspect, which in turn greatly increases the potential for the exercise of excessive force.”
“Under the circumstances, a reasonable jury could conclude that the City was on notice as to the propensity of its officers to use excessive force after a vehicular pursuit,” Saylor wrote. “A reasonable jury could further conclude that the City was aware that its training on vehicular pursuits and the use of force was inadequate, but nonetheless exhibited deliberate indifference to the unconstitutional effects of those inadequacies.”
Smith’s attorney, Timothy Kotfila, did not return messages seeking comment.
A date for a jury trial in the case has been set for Dec. 13.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.