Two more Louisianans arrested during protests that followed the death of Alton Sterling are suing law enforcement agencies in a Baton Rouge federal court, alleging they were the victims of unlawful arrest and excessive force.
Both Max Geller and Brandon Erp filed lawsuits May 19 seeking unspecified damages for various injuries they claim they sustained at the hands of state and local police officers and deputies July 9-10.
Geller—a New Orleans man whose arrest was widely covered by local media—alleges he was “brutally tackled and beaten” by Louisiana State Police at the intersection of East Boulevard and France Street while he was video recording the protests with his cell phone.
In his lawsuit, he alleges the officers slammed his head into the ground, kicked him and also struck him in the head with “a rifle butt or other blunt object.” He claims he lost consciousness, and suffered cuts and abrasions to his face and head as well as injuries to his ribs, arms and shoulders. Geller also says he has since been diagnosed with lateral epicondylitis, or scar tissue forming around his elbow tendons, which “may require future medical treatment.”
Erp—a Baton Rouge resident—alleges he was tackled by a police officer and surrounded by officers with rifles pointed at him while he was protesting at Airline Highway and Goodwood Avenue. His lawsuit claims he suffered multiple cuts, bruised ribs and contusions to his chest. Erp was one of the original four named plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit led by Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson, but according to a recent memorandum on the progress of the case, he had an outstanding warrant at the time and therefore is no longer a member of the identified class. A settlement in that case that will pay each of the 92 plaintiffs arrested for simple obstruction of a state highway is working its way through the final approval process.
—Penny Font
