Man thrown to ground by Kansas City police officer settles lawsuit for $500,000

A man who was thrown to the ground by Kansas City police officers will receive $500,000 after suing the police department.

A bystander captured video of the Aug. 8, 2022, encounter, showing an officer forcing Mack Nelson’s face onto the ground outside of a gas station near 55th Street and Prospect Avenue. Nelson briefly fell unconscious and suffered injuries to his body and face, including his eyes and shoulders, the lawsuit said.

He filed a civil lawsuit in February in Jackson County Circuit Court accusing the officers of assault and battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

John Picerno, who represented Nelson, said the officers also failed to activate their body cameras and falsified the police report by saying Nelson fell to the ground.

“We’re satisfied that we accomplished what we could accomplish in the civil case,” Picerno said. “What we’d like to see happen is that the officers get charged with crimes for the offenses that they’ve committed and/or that they get disciplined by the police department.”

Jackson County prosecutors continue reviewing the case for possible charges against the officers, the office’s spokesman Mike Mansur said Friday.

Reached for comment, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department did not answer questions about the officers’ actions or the settlement. Sgt. Jake Becchina said the case is considered an ongoing investigation and that disciplinary information is a closed record.

Steve Young, co-founder of the Kansas City Law Enforcement Accountability Project, a local activist organization, recorded the interaction and has described the officer as having “body slammed” Nelson.

Despite the settlement, Young said Friday that more change still needs to happen within the police department.

“I want to put out a call out to Chief (Stacey) Graves: What are you going to do different, Chief Graves? Is there going to be some systemic change within KCPD or will you just go to the next (Board of Police Commissioners) BOPC meeting and ask for more money for settlements?” Young said.

The settlement announced this month is the latest in a number of high-dollar lawsuits filed against the Kansas City Police Department, including a $5 million payout to the family of a man who was fatally shot by a police officer in 2019.

Encounter at police shooting scene

The encounter unfolded after Kansas City police officers shot and killed Zachary Garrard, 31, near a gas station on the East Side. Nelson and others were asked to remain inside while officers processed the scene for evidence.

After a while, they were told they could leave.

Nelson later told The Star he was upset that officers had shot someone and weren’t thoroughly questioning witnesses, so he began to take videos on Facebook Live and make comments the officers didn’t like.

According to the lawsuit, Nelson was asked to stay behind the police tape and he complied. Nelson then allegedly walked to an area of the parking lot not marked off with police tape.

Nelson complied when he was instructed to back away, but an officer grabbed him and tried to arrest him, claiming he failed to follow the orders, the lawsuit said.

The officer then tried to restrain Nelson, knocking the phone out of his hand before he forced the man’s face onto the pavement. In Young’s video, he narrates as Nelson, injured, sat slouched over. He was eventually given towels for his head before being put in an ambulance.

Nelson sustained several injuries and was later given a ticket for disorderly conduct, trespassing and obstructing or resisting police.

Police report does not match video

A police report written by Officer Alyssa Surges claims Nelson fell to the ground after “jerking his arms away and attempting to twist his body away from P.O. Frazier.”

According to the report, Nelson was asked several times to get behind the crime scene tape, but refused to comply.

In Frazier’s account, he alleges Nelson was “pulled onto the ground.”

Picerno said the discrepancies between their reports and what was captured on video highlight a a problem with police accounts of excessive force incidents.

“You may have a different opinion on the use of force or resisting arrest, but it’s obvious to anyone who watches the video he did not fall, and then to submit a police report where they said he fell to the ground — that’s just a flat out lie,” he said.

None of the five officers mentioned in the lawsuit were recording the interaction with their body cameras, Picerno continued, with the exception of Surges, who turned her camera on only after the alleged assault.

“It was a huge cover up, we caught them with their pants down,” Picerno said. “But for the bystander video, we wouldn’t have known that they fabricated this police report.”

The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners approved the settlement during a closed session on May 23, according to minutes from the session.