Suit: Police barged into Kansas home, beat man for no reason

Authored by apnews.com and submitted by pantangeli

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal lawsuit alleges that Kansas City, Kansas, police broke into a man’s home in the middle of the night and beat him before having him charged with battery of a law enforcement officer.

Joseph Harter, 43, claims in the lawsuit filed last week in federal court that he was temporarily blinded by blood in his eyes and went to a hospital after the October 2018 beating, The Kansas City Star reported .

The police department and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County declined to comment Wednesday on the pending litigation, which alleges that Harter was the victim of illegal entry, battery, false imprisonment and excessive force.

The municipal battery charge that was filed against him was dropped less than two months later “due to prosecutor discretion and pending investigation,” according to court records.

Harter’s attorney, William Dunn, said he does not believe Harter had interacted with Kansas City, Kansas, police before that night. It was unclear why police would have been at his house.

“I think what you’re wanting to understand, and certainly I want to understand too but I don’t, is what are the police doing in there,” he said to a reporter. “That will hopefully come out as the case moves forward.”

Dunn said that by filing suit Harter is hoping for compensation for his $13,000 in medical bills and lasting trauma. Harter and Dunn also hope to prevent such an event from happening to another resident of Kansas City, Kansas, he said.

“Maybe, depending on how this all shakes out, maybe the unified government needs to take a look at their policies and procedures and who they’re hiring to carry them out,” he said.

Wyandotte County prosecutor’s office spokesman Jonathan Carter said in an email that no officers were charged in the case.

ecafyelims on December 19th, 2019 at 15:49 UTC »

A federal lawsuit alleges that Kansas City, Kansas, police broke into a man’s home in the middle of the night and beat him before having him charged with battery of a law enforcement officer.

"His face hurt our fists"

Viper_JB on December 19th, 2019 at 15:49 UTC »

and beat him before having him charged with battery of a law enforcement officer.

Beat him to the point where he was blinded by blood in his eyes any they tried to charge him with battery of an officer...this is a roller coaster of an article...what kind of lunatics are working in the police force here?

klauskervin on December 19th, 2019 at 15:34 UTC »

Reading this made me only more confused as apparently the police had zero reason to be at this guy's house and that he never had a run in with police in the past either. I've heard some bad stories about Kansas City police so I'm not surprised if this is just pure corruption.