{"id":17166,"date":"2015-04-15T15:58:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T15:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clekis.com\/?p=17166"},"modified":"2015-04-15T15:58:54","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T15:58:54","slug":"walter-scott-civil-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themediabeast.com\/resources\/walter-scott-civil-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"Walter Scott Shooting Seen as Opening for Civil Suits Against North Charleston\u2019s Police Dept"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/clekis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/walter-scott.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-17167\" src=\"http:\/\/clekis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/walter-scott.jpg\" alt=\"walter scott, julius wilson, personal injury lawyer, criminal defense lawyer\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. \u2014 After Julius G. Wilson was stunned with a Taser in August, he and his lawyers considered filing a complaint against the officer who discharged it, Michael T. Slager. For months, though, they did not act.<br \/>\nBut after Mr. Slager was charged last week with murder in the April 4 shooting death of Walter L. Scott, an unarmed black man, Mr. Wilson and his lawyers began to reconsider their approach. On Friday, they filed a lawsuit in a South Carolina court against Mr. Slager and the city of North Charleston.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn light of all of the recent events, we thought it important that we relook at the dash-cam video that we had,\u201d Nicholas J. Clekis, one of Mr. Wilson\u2019s lawyers, said on Monday. \u201cAnd the fact that this was not an isolated event for Officer Slager, we decided that we would go ahead and file this lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Wilson and everybody else in the community that may have been affected by this kind of behavior from the officers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a separate development on Monday, the prosecutor considering the murder case against Mr. Slager, who was fired from the Police Department after his arrest, said that she did not expect to pursue the death penalty if the former officer was indicted. \u201cBased on the facts revealed thus far, it does not appear that South Carolina\u2019s death penalty provision applies in this case because there are no statutory \u2018aggravating circumstances\u2019 present,\u201d the prosecutor, Scarlett A. Wilson, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Any indictment is weeks away. But North Charleston, a city of about 104,000 people, is soon expected to face other lawsuits involving Mr. Slager\u2019s actions as a police officer, including one from Mr. Scott\u2019s family.<\/p>\n<p>Another resident, Mario Givens, who filed a complaint in 2013 after Mr. Slager used a Taser against him at his home, has also said he will file suit. The Police Department investigated Mr. Givens\u2019s complaint at the time and cleared Mr. Slager of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Mr. Slager and the city, Mr. Wilson\u2019s lawsuit names the Police Department, its chief and two other officers. Mr. Slager, however, is an evident focus.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Wilson was arrested after a police officer stopped him for a broken taillight and found that he was driving with a suspended license. He told reporters on Monday that he refused to leave the Mercedes-Benz he had been driving. He said that Officer Brad Woods sought his cooperation, but that he refused because the officers would not tell him why he was being arrested.<\/p>\n<p>A police dashboard video shows Mr. Slager and Officer Woods pulling Mr. Wilson from his vehicle before another officer joined the scuffle and helped wrestle Mr. Wilson to the ground. Mr. Slager can soon be heard saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to tase.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for Mr. Wilson, who pleaded guilty to resisting arrest for his conduct during the episode, denied that he had been a threat to the officers. But in a report last year, Mr. Slager wrote that Mr. Wilson had \u201ccontinued to resist and refused to put his hands behind his back.\u201d A police spokesman on Monday declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>It remains unclear how many more lawsuits may eventually be filed. Experts said high-profile allegations of officer misconduct do not always generate new complaints about an officer. But, they said, Mr. Slager\u2019s case may be an exception because the shooting of Mr. Scott was recorded on an amateur video that has been widely seen.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Slager\u2019s recollections of the shooting of Mr. Scott have also emerged with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division\u2019s gradual release of video recordings. \u201cHe grabbed my Taser, yeah,\u201d Mr. Slager said during a telephone call picked up on a police video recording, The Associated Press reported. \u201cHe was running from me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The A.P. also said that one of Mr. Slager\u2019s supervisors recommended that he quickly document his memory of \u201cwhat happened \u2014 the adrenaline is just pumping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Slager replied, before the men laughed, \u201cIt\u2019s pumping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Mr. Slager also appeared to reflect on the shooting, which happened after Mr. Scott fled from a traffic stop, and said, \u201cI don\u2019t understand why he\u2019d run.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/04\/14\/us\/walter-scott-shooting-turns-michael-slager-into-litigant-as-north-charleston-braces-for-suits.html?hp&#038;action=click&#038;pgtype=Homepage&#038;module=second-column-region\u00aeion=top-news&#038;WT.nav=top-news&#038;_r=0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. \u2014 After Julius G. Wilson was stunned with a Taser in August, he and his lawyers considered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[116,303,779],"tags":[78,119,780,781,782],"class_list":["post-17166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-blog","category-civil-rights","category-crime-in-the-news","tag-criminal-defense-lawyer","tag-personal-injury-lawyer","tag-julius-wilson","tag-mario-givens","tag-walter-scott"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v17.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Walter Scott Shooting Seen as Opening for Civil Suits Against North Charleston\u2019s Police Dept - MMG Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After Julius Wilson was stunned with a Taser , he and his lawyers considered filing a complaint against the officer who discharged it, Michael T. 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