Officer Brandon Hicks of Troy Alabama PD was promoted to Sergeant after this 2017 beating of a 17 yr old handcuffed youth

The mom of a teen who says he was severely beaten by Troy police two days earlier than Christmas in 2017 has filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to the 5 officers who had been allegedly there at the time of the incident. 

Angela Williams, in a information convention with legal professional Julian McPhillips, stated her then 17-year-old son Ulysses Wilkerson had a minimum of one hand sure in handcuffs when officers kicked her son within the face, utilizing extreme pressure for what in the end resulted in two misdemeanor offenses.  

Not one of the officers had been charged within the incident. 

The lawsuit comes after months of making an attempt to get video and audio proof from the incident. 

“I’ve tried each option to get it however guess what, it is stonewall, stonewall, stonewall by the Troy legislation enforcement neighborhood together with the policemen,” McPhillips stated. “If they might present us he was, you understand, inflicting all of it or preventing in any respect then you understand we in all probability by no means would have pursued this case.”

Williams, through the convention, stated her final aim is to maintain this from taking place to anybody else’s youngster. 

“On December the 23rd 2017, my 17-year-old disabled son was severely overwhelmed by a number of Troy Police Division officers as a result of he was a black younger male strolling late at night time,” she stated. “If the beating was justified, why not present the bodycam or dashcam movies? I am preventing for all moms who should undergo this as a result of if we cease it now we can’t have to fret about them doing it to another person.”

Wilkerson was strolling behind a downtown enterprise within the metropolis of Troy when he was startled by police that night time. He ran from the officers and when police caught as much as him, they beat him, the household stated.

Williams, shortly after the incident, posted {a photograph} of her son’s bruised and bloodied face on Fb which garnered nationwide consideration. Within the image, the left aspect of his face is engorged from his eye socket right down to his jaw line. The swelling unfold throughout his nostril the place dried blood remained. 

Pike County District Legal professional Tom Anderson stated shortly after the incident that officers used pressure after Wilkerson reached into his waistband for what they feared is likely to be a weapon.

Wilkerson was charged with two misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and obstructing governmental operations. He was adjudicated of these fees in juvenile courtroom, which sealed his data from public view. 

In Might, McPhillips filed a petition in Montgomery County for “pre-litigation discovery” on behalf of Williams naming the Alabama Legislation Enforcement Company, Troy police Chief Randall Barr and Anderson.

McPhillips argued that paperwork, pictures, audio and video recordings needs to be made out there to find out the viability of a lawsuit. 

An legal professional for ALEA argued the petition was filed improperly, claiming Williams couldn’t be a petitioner as her son was now over the age of majority and in addition that it ought to have been filed in Pike County the place the alleged incident happened. 

The case was in the end moved to Pike County and Wilkerson was added to the petition, however McPhillips argued his mom nonetheless had a proper to be on the submitting as she was liable for his medical prices on the time of the incident. 

The petition, as soon as it was transferred to Pike County added the 5 officers now named within the federal go well with — Brandon Hicks, Barry Rodgers, Jason Barron, Brandon Kirkland and Michael Watts. 

A course of server, despatched to serve discover of the submitting to the officers, dropped them off with a girl working a short lived project as a receptionist at Metropolis Corridor. On the time of the submitting, Hicks not labored with the Troy Police Division. 

An legal professional for the officers filed a movement to dismiss the petition on the grounds that the filings had been by no means correctly served to the named officers. Reveals hooked up to the courtroom file present that the girl, not the officers, signed the service data. 

The petition was in the end dismissed after McPhillips additionally filed a movement to dismiss the petition. 

In the course of the information convention McPhillips shrugged off the earlier points with discovery and whether or not the officers had been correctly served or not. 

“There’s been some problems with them, I hate to say it however, dodging service,” he stated. “However we do not but know what they will say is the standing of that.”

With out proof from the incident, McPhillips and Williams are counting on Wilkerson’s recollection to establish officers concerned for the federal go well with. 

“We do not know for certain who did all of the soiled work if you’ll, we predict, a number of did, however we predict all of them had been there sort of supporting each other,” McPhillips stated.

“Within the hospital we pulled up the Troy web page and he simply scrolled by means of photos and identified officers he remembered,” Williams stated. 

Only in the near past, BLM Weblog discovered the case is much from settled, furthermore Troy Police Officer Brandon Hicks has by no means confronted fees or any type of punishment for beating the handcuffed teen.

Nor has their been decision to the Civil Lawsuit filed as of three/21/2021

CIVIL ACTION NO. 2:19cv898-MHT (WO)

03-11-2021

ULYSSES WILKERSON and ANGELA WILLIAMS as Mom of Ulysses Wilkerson, Plaintiff, v. BRANDON HICKS, in his particular person and official capability with the Metropolis of Troy Police Division, et al., Defendants.

Myron H. Thompson UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

ORDER

Plaintiffs have moved for go away to file a second amended grievance on this case. See Movement for Depart to Amend (Doc. 35). The proposed second amended grievance would add a rely beneath 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for “illegal arrest” and would restate the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims as introduced in opposition to the defendants solely of their particular person capacities, relatively than in each their particular person and official capacities. Proposed Second Amended Grievance (Doc. 35-1) at 1, 7. 

Rule 15 of the Federal Guidelines of Civil Process addresses the modification of pleadings. It offers that amendments past the primary could also be made “solely with the opposing get together’s written consent or the courtroom’s go away,” and it instructs that courts “ought to freely give go away when justice so requires.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2). Defendants oppose the current modification on the grounds that it was unduly delayed, is obtainable in unhealthy religion, and is futile. See Response to Movement to Amend (Doc. 41) at 3-11.

Upon consideration of the proposed modification and defendants’ response in opposition, the courtroom will grant the movement to amend. The courtroom believes that the substantive points raised in defendants’ arguments concerning unhealthy religion and futility could be higher addressed on motions filed in response to the proposed second amended grievance, and it doesn’t discover that the modification was unduly delayed. Furthermore, the modification will present the advantage of aligning the plaintiffs’  claims for aid, which search solely cash damages for the alleged constitutional violations, with the capability during which the defendants are sued.

Plaintiffs have additionally moved the courtroom to take judicial discover of a juvenile courtroom adjudication associated to the arrest from which their allegations on this go well with come up. See Movement for Judicial Discover (Doc. 42) at 1. Defendants have joined on this request. See Joinder in Movement for Judicial Discover (Doc. 45) at 1. A federal courtroom might take judicial discover of related state proceedings, together with legal proceedings. See Cunningham v. Dist. Att’y’s Off., 592 F.3d 1237, 1255 (11th Cir. 2010); Lozman v. Metropolis of Riviera Seashore, 713 F.3d 1066, 1075 n.9 (11th Cir. 2013). However taking judicial discover of the actual fact of related proceedings doesn’t make the details present in such proceedings binding on the courtroom. See Grayson v. Warden, Comm’r, Ala. Doc, 869 F.3d 1204, 1224-25 (11th Cir. 2017). As such, the courtroom will grant the movement and take judicial  discover of the existence of the juvenile adjudication famous by the events, with the proviso that this discover doesn’t prolong to the details present in that adjudication.

* * *

Accordingly, it’s ORDERED as follows:

(1) Plaintiffs’ movement for go away to amend the grievance (Doc. 35) is granted. Plaintiffs ought to file the proposed second amended grievance on or earlier than March 19, 2021.

(2) Plaintiffs’ movement for judicial discover (Doc. 42) is granted. The courtroom will take judicial discover of the adjudication of the Alabama Courtroom of Prison Appeals in U. W. v. State, CR-17-0667 (Doc. 42-1).

(3) Defendants’ movement to dismiss the primary amended grievance (Doc. 23) is denied with go away to resume.

DONE, this the 11th day of March, 2021.

/s/ Myron H. Thompson

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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