Police barged into Kansas man’s home at night and beat him up for no reason: lawsuit
Police officers in Kansas City, Kansas, are accused of breaking into a man’s home in the middle of the night and beating him up before having him charged with assault, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week.
The man claims in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Kansas that he was beaten and falsely imprisoned by the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department in October 2018.
The police department and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County each declined to comment Wednesday on the pending litigation or the man’s claims.
The suit stems from an Oct. 28, 2018, incident at the home of 43-year-old Joseph Harter near 43rd Street and State Line Road.
According to the suit, Harter woke up about 3 a.m. and realized there was another person in his bedroom. He would later discover that person was Faisal Hassan, a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer.
After Harter sat up, the suit says, Hassan severely beat him in the head and body to the point where he was temporarily blinded by his own blood in his eyes.
Other officers, the suit says, were in the bedroom during the beating but did not intervene.
Officers allegedly arrested Harter and transported him to the University of Kansas Medical Center before bringing him to the Wyandotte County Adult Detention Center.
Hassan’s attorneys did not return The Star’s request for comment in time for publication.
Harter was later charged in Kansas City, Kansas, Municipal Court with battery of a law enforcement officer.
Those charges were dropped less than two months later “due to prosecutor discretion and pending investigation,” according to court records.
Harter’s attorney, William Dunn, said he was told the case was being considered by the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office but that the office chose not to file charges in September.
Dunn said he does not believe Harter had interacted with Kansas City, Kansas, police before the October 2018 incident. 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 the lasting trauma he has experienced. 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.
The lawsuit names as defendants Hassan, former police chief Terry Zeigler, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and unknown police officers as defendants.
Zeigler did not respond to The Star’s request for comment in time for publication.
The suit claims Harter was the victim of illegal entry, battery, false imprisonment and excessive force.
It also claims that “policies, practices, customs and procedures” maintained by Zeigler and the Unified Government deprived Harter of his constitutional rights.
Zeigler, the suit claims, failed to properly train and supervise officers in policies that would have protected Harter and other citizens of Kansas City, Kansas.
