“Hands up, don’t shoot!” – Black Lives Matter Protestors
Unfortunately, police officers routinely abuse the powers given to them, whether by assaulting civilians, falsely arresting innocent people, or committing gross violations of citizens’ civil rights. Though the law protects people from excessive force, false imprisonment, and other police misconduct, these abuses tragically still happen all the time.
Paula Greisen and Scott Medlock have spent their entire careers protecting people from the police. As a public defender, Paula Greisen represented people accused of crimes and fought to protect their due process rights, before she began bringing lawsuits against police officers in the private sector. As a lawyer at a Texas non-profit organization, Scott Medlock brought numerous lawsuits against police officers and sheriff’s deputies, often in very difficult courts in the State of Texas.
Cases against police officers are very difficult, but Greisen Medlock’s attorneys have the experience necessary to hold officers accountable when they violate citizens’ civil rights.
Scott Medlock represented the family of David Joseph, a Black teenager experiencing a mental health crisis, who a police officer shot and killed as he ran naked through a suburban neighborhood. At the time the lawsuit settled, it was one of the largest settlements ever paid in a police brutality lawsuit by the City of Austin, Texas. Before the lawsuit was even filed, the department also required all officers to attend “unconscious bias” training, and the officer who killed David lost his job.
Scott Medlock’s prior law firm represented the family of Javier Ambler, Jr., who was killed by Texas sheriff’s deputies while they were filming a police reality tv show, Live PD. Javier begged, “I can’t breathe” while officers beat and shocked him with a TASER. In addition to significant compensation for Javier’s family, the Javier’s death helped shut down Live PD, resulted in several officers being arrested and charged, and helped cause the county sheriff to lose his re-election bid.
Paula Greisen represented a nurse who was terrorized by police officers conducting an “active shooter” drill. The lawsuit alleged that a police officer posing as an “active shooter” took the nurse “hostage” without informing her the drill was fake, and held her at gunpoint for the duration of the “drill.”
Scott Medlock represented a man who was falsely arrested for shoplifting, when police lied on an arrest affidavit saying surveillance video identified him as the suspect. In fact, the video was so grainy that any reasonable person could barely identify it was a human being in the video.
Scott Medlock won a significant settlement for a California man who was the victim of a robbery, but then badly beaten by police officers when they arrived on the scene. As the robbery victim tried to escape his assailants, a police officer sprinted over fifty yard to tackle him into a concrete wall, then began beating and shocking him with a TASER as he lay on the ground.
If you or someone you love has been a victim of police brutality or misconduct, contact us to see if we can help.
