JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Four Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officers are being slapped with a federal lawsuit stemming from an arrest video that went viral, last year.
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Le’Keian Woods, 25, alleged he has permanent physical injuries because of a September 2023 arrest. The lawsuit accuses the officers of racial profiling and excessive force.,
“[On] September 29, 2023, I was stopped at a traffic stop. I ran. I got kind of scared,” Woods said. “I [inaudible] was gonna shoot me when I had like seen the situation, so I panicked and I ran.”
Woods spoke for the first time since his arrest, outside the federal courthouse in downtown Jacksonville. He and his attorneys announced a lawsuit against the four officers involved in his arrest: Hunter Sullivan, Trey McCullough, Beau Daigle, and the now-former JSO officer Josue Garriga.
In body camera video released by the Sheriff’s Office, days after a cell phone video went viral, it shows Woods running away from police after he was pulled over for a seatbelt violation. He was told to stop multiple times.
“Some people say they wish Le’Keian wouldn’t have ran. Well I would have said he should have ran faster,” Civil Rights Attorney, Henry Daniels said. “Once he got caught by them, tased by them you saw what happened next.”
Woods was hit 17 times, after he was tased and later fell face-first onto the pavement, according to an arrest report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. He was arrested and charged for drug possession, tampering with evidence, and resisting an officer with violence.
The Sheriff’s Office said the traffic stop was tied to a possible drug deal, but Daniels said that’s not true.
Woods’s drug charges were dropped, and his other charge was downgraded. He pleaded guilty to resisting an officer without violence.
When asked if he would do anything differently by Action News Jax, Meghan Moriarty, during Thursday’s news conference, he said “no.”
The lawsuit alleged Woods suffered a head injury, swelling to his eyes and face, nerve damage, ruptured kidney and impairment to the vision in his left eye.
The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.
However, one of the officers involved is now serving prison time. Former officer Josue Garriga pleaded guilty to enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity in July.
“I think that it’s time that we acknowledge that something is fundamentally wrong with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office,” Daniels said.
The lawsuit does not name a specific amount of money for damages.
We reached out to the Sheriff’s Office for an interview but were told the Sheriff was unavailable.
“This is pending litigation, we would not be able to comment further,” a spokesperson with Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
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