Attorney for Mike McCloskey files suit, claims civil rights were violated- Updated
There’s been no release of information from the Ottawa Hills police and officials with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, but another local news site, The Newsmeister, has the story about the lawsuit that provides more details that has been reported so far. Biker Allegedly Shot in Back by Ottawa Hills Cop Paralyzed and Burned; Files Law Suit is a recommended read for those of you have been following the story. Part of the information shared by George Tanber:
According to the complaint, McCloskey was traveling from work on his motorcycle with a friend around 2:10 a.m. to a house he was staying at in Ottawa Hills. A co-employee was driving in a car behind McCloskey and his friend, but turned off on another road. As McCloskey and his friend were westbound on Indian Hills Road, toward Central Avenue, a car without lights came up from behind. McCloskey assumed it was his friend in the car. Then, on Indian near Central the road was blocked by a police vehicle, at which point McCloskey stopped his bike.
According to the complaint, as he prepared to dismount from his bike, McCloskey, who was not armed, was shot in the back. “He immediately fell to the ground paralyzed from the waist down, as the said shot severed his spine,” the complaint said.When McCloskey fell to the ground, his motorcycle fell on top of him. His friend in the car, who is not identified, showed up a few minutes later and saw McCloskey on the ground with his bike still on top of him and running. According to the complaint, he heard McCloskey say, “I’m shot. I can’t move. Get this bike off of me.”
Neither Officer White or Officer Doe assisted McCloskey in any way, the complaint said.
McCloskey’s friend, fearing an explosion, told the officers they needed to turn off the motorcycle and move the bike off McCloskey, as his legs were being burned by the exhaust pipes. According to the complaint, one of the officers said: “He’s your friend, you get the bike off him.”
Eventually, the motorcycle was turned off and removed from McCloskey’s body. He sustained second or third-degree burns on his right leg and heel that might result in amputation of his right leg at some point, the complaint said.
Updated! A copy of the complaint filed on behalf of Mike McCloskey with the caution that these are the allegations being made at this point.
Yeah and nothing out of the mayors office. It has been plenty of time, because of the lack of communication It appears the Ottawa Hills Police department and the mayor supports the actions of the officers in question on this matter. So with that being said, the police department needs to be dissolved, the present mayor removed and the state takes over the function of mayor and law enforcement. So the car being driven behind him with no lights? could it have been the second officer? the same one that shot the person in the back?
June 4th, 2009 at 11:39 pmyou’re absolutely right. the same thing should happen in new york where that poor cop got mistakenly shot by his colleagues, clearly the nypd is too incompetent and should be taken over by the state. because that’s the way it works. moron.
June 5th, 2009 at 8:18 amA Complaint is only allegations, written and posed by an attorney. In this case a very experienced attorney. At this early stage allot remains unknown. I am surprised McCloskey’s attorney is bringing these claims so early, but it will add pressure to the investigation and eventually will provide a means to discover some of the facts.
TAHL
June 5th, 2009 at 9:50 amA hole lawyer-
June 5th, 2009 at 12:01 pmWith all of your claimed education and experience do you even know that the word “allot” is not actually a word. I think you meant a lot…go back to school please
That is very true – the allegations have been recorded and now there will be a case.
It’s good that this was filed early, if the allegations are true, there is a grave danger to the public in that area.
But now there will be fact finding and a hearing of those facts.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:05 pmTAHL:
The A-Hole Lawyer wrote:
Do you believe that’s why claims were brought early? When are claims generally brought in cases like this?
Last questions: The suite against Ottawa Hills, et al is civil, yes? Doesn’t this actually come down to the word of the police against the word of the complainant? Isn’t $75,000 a fairly small amount of money here? I’d have thought $75 million closer to the mark.
Thanks for posting, by the way. Unlike a few others here, I don’t shoot the messenger and I value the opinion of someone who has passed the bar.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:11 pmthe 75,000 is a minimum as stated.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:33 pmAdmin note – comment removed
June 5th, 2009 at 1:35 pmteddy wrote:
Definition of the word allot –
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/allot
I just had to do this
I also hate when people write “loose” when they mean lose.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:15 pmteddy – Didn’t I mention there was counseling available for the irrational inability to deal with authority? Nobody should be advocating shooting anybody here. That’s a dangerous road to go down. What you’re proposing isn’t any different than what you alledge the OH police officer did. You’re one in the same.
June 5th, 2009 at 2:18 pmPam, I used to be guilty of “loose/lose”…
June 5th, 2009 at 3:53 pmI read my word choice and initially cringed as a typo. I knew someone would use it as a method of attack instead of sticking to the issues, and Teddy did not disappoint.
Then, in reading the definition provided by Pam, I realized I remain above reproach; as there may be an allotment, or a “lot” of information not yet known.
One computer has google spell check the other does not, and while above average – I am human.
IF you fail to see the self deprecating nature of my screenname – you likely will miss the conceited sarcasm in this post.
Civil case – yes, the statutory minimum for Fed. court is $75,0000, thus damages are plead as exceeding 75K.
Federal claims for violations of civil rights do not have a statute of limitations, per se. The limitation is based upon the nature of the conduct that forms the basis for the Federal claim. Thus, because the basis for the claim is assault, the Ohio statute of limitation for assault applies. In a civil case in Ohio the limit is one year.
Thus, McCloskey and his lawyer could wait months to develop the facts and establish the medical and other damages before filing the Complaint. As I stated before, however, the suit provides methods for discovery of information that would otherwise be difficult if not impossible to obtain.
TAHL
June 5th, 2009 at 5:01 pmTHAL – I had to read your explanation carefully. I get it. Smart lawyering. Thanks for taking the time to post. .
June 5th, 2009 at 6:46 pmI agree with TAHL Jack. It’ll bring pressure on the situation and take the steam out of a potential loss in respect for police in the area. (which could create an added sense of aggression toward them and we do NOT want that).
Either way it’s a win. But having this happen in a vacuum can’t really offer a good outcome. People get very upset about this type of thing.
Most bloggers ignore minor spelling/grammatical errors since they appreciate the free flow of thoughts enough to ignore minor errors – it’s just a courtesy.
June 5th, 2009 at 7:05 pmThe A-Hole Lawyer wrote:
Wrong! That applies only to diversity cases. The complaint alleged a federal claim. There is no minimum when a federal claim is made.
Sorry everyone for boring you with all this lawyer talk, but if someone is going to going to give legal opinions, they ought to have some idea what they are talking about!!
June 5th, 2009 at 8:51 pmjenny wrote:
Fill me in on this jen. Are you saying that minorities get certain rights and privileges that others don’t?
Is this a pc term? “diversity”
June 5th, 2009 at 8:53 pmNot Again wrote:
No, you do not have to be a minority to have a federal claim. Any race, gender, etc can have their constitutional rights violated or allegedly violated. These types of claims do not have to meet the $75,000 threshold.
Some non federal claims can also be brought in federal court, but they do have to meet the threshold amount.
June 6th, 2009 at 7:30 amWell after driving through the hills today I thought on this again and here is what I am thinking..
Since the officer did DISCHARGE his weapon, and totally disregarded any type of safety. and so what the bike was on the person, he could have had a stroke of some sort from the heat of the bike..
I think he ought to be charged with attempted murder as there was no indication of any safety involved. If the officer was free to shoot, and disregard the issue of bike falling onto the subject then its attempted murder. As no attempt to protect the person from harm.
The second officer known as Officer Doe, well he.she shall be an accessory to all this. Unless of course he called command once he witnessed said action and completed a full report, that does explain exactly what happened and not a version that would “make it look good”
I have also come the the conclusion if they OHPD attempted to stop me, it would only happen if another agency was involved, as there is no trust with this agency.
June 6th, 2009 at 7:05 pmJen is correct.
The amount in controversy requirement of Federal Question based jurisdictional cases has been eliminated. Parties may bring Civil Rights causes of action, such as Section 1983 claims, regardless of amount of damages suffered or alleged. So it appears I miss-wrote. Federal Civil Procedure class was some time ago.
But, the question in the post was why McCloskey’s attorney only plead $75,000 in damages. The reason (I believe) is that most civil Complaints plead the minimum jurisdictional amounts, and this attorney likely plead the $75K minimum as a matter of habit.
The point being, the pleaded amount is not a limit to the damages the plaintiff may eventually recover.
Now, I try not to respond to the “tone” of posts, such nuance is tough in print, but Jenny gave me not one but Three exclamation points. “Wrong”, and “but if someone is going to going to give legal opinions, they ought to have some idea what they are talking about!!”
Double exclamation points…….following a double going to — unless that’s Jenny’s version of, going going GONE………….
Jenny, I don’t know you. But a simple, “TAHL is confusing diversity jurisdiction with federal question jurisdiction” would have sufficed.
Not Again – Diversity is a legal term of art which means the parties are from different states. Thus there is a question of which court the case can or should be brought in.
For example, you are an Ohio resident, who gets injured by an Indiana resident while you both are in Texas. Because you both are domiciled in different states – you are “diverse” parties. You could bring the case several places, but if your potential damages are over $75K, you could choose a federal court because the parties have complete “diversity”, and in the example damages exceed the jurisdictional minimum required.
TAHL
June 7th, 2009 at 9:02 amTheAssholeLawyer wrote:
Yes, I could have said that, but who would have understood it.TheAssholeLawyer wrote:
Wrong again, there has never been an “amount in controversy” requirement in federal question cases. At one time, there was no such requirement in diversity cases either. However, as the number of diversity cases increased, Congress imposed a jurisdictional minimum to cut down on the number of such cases filed in federal court.
June 7th, 2009 at 12:05 pmEnough…I concede, after all the post is not about the size of our legal brains.
TAHL
June 7th, 2009 at 1:11 pmI agree, but if you are going to try to explain the law to people please try to be correct.
June 7th, 2009 at 6:28 pmjenny wrote:
Jenny, are you single?
June 7th, 2009 at 6:34 pmNotes to amendments to US Code, Title 28 section 1331.
1980—Pub. L. 96–486 struck out “; amount in controversy; costs” in section catchline, struck out minimum amount in controversy requirement of $10,000 for original jurisdiction in federal question cases which necessitated striking the exception to such required minimum amount that authorized original jurisdiction in actions brought against the United States, any agency thereof, or any officer or employee thereof in an official capacity, struck out provision authorizing the district court except where express provision therefore was made in a federal statute to deny costs to a plaintiff and in fact impose such costs upon such plaintiff where plaintiff was adjudged to be entitled to recover less than the required amount in controversy, computed without regard to set-off or counterclaim and exclusive of interests and costs, and struck out existing subsection designations.”
Jenny – I wanted to let this go. But you had to close with the judgment that I should “try” to be right. So, of course the advocate in me could not be assuaged. If you would like to fully debate the legislative intent and history of Section 1331, we can start a new string of posts, or exchange emails.
TAHL
June 7th, 2009 at 7:23 pmCan you two get a room?
June 7th, 2009 at 10:16 pmIt’s disturbing to me that an officer shot an unarmed citizen then showed absolutely no regard for his health or well-being. As I understand it, the officer didn’t even call for any medical response. How is this not considered a crime?
Is this who we want protecting us?
-Dan
June 7th, 2009 at 11:00 pm+2
Photodan wrote:
June 8th, 2009 at 2:23 pmHow could you find out if a call for medical assistance went out from that call? Given the seriousness of the guy’s injuries, there must have been one.
Was he transported by ambulance? If so, who called for it?
June 8th, 2009 at 2:51 pmYou’d have to get the 911 logs for that night. They are public record. Some journalistic entity should have already requested those.
June 9th, 2009 at 10:25 pmMary, this is Toledo. The local media relies solely upon blogsites for follow-up information because the worthless jokes we have now that are reporting the news gives two shits about how informed you are compared to filling a void in a column or 30-second filler to make commercial without dead-air.
Yep, both printed and radio/tv. Anything to sell ad space trumps follow-ups and investigative reporting in the Glass Capital. Oh, and not allowing facts to get in the way of a good story seems to be a great mantra.
NOW you’re going to see seven different local stories about the 911 calls.
and that is what is so effing sad…
June 10th, 2009 at 4:58 amkateb wrote:
I have been told that the call was made by the 2nd friend in the car. After he removed the motorcycle from on top of Mike, without assistance from White or “Doe” , he then had to call 911 himself to get an ambulance.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:36 pmIt is tragic that the Toledo media is so uninterested in this case. Why have there been no demands or legal action from the media for the dash cam recordings or the 911 tapes to be released. Hopefuly this civil case will bring the healthy dose of sunlight that has been so lacking in this incident.
Suron Jacobs, Officer Deters, USDOJ civil rights violations investigations, Siwiki homicide, all of this bad karma from a Police Department that has less than 5,000 residents? Sounds to me like the Police Chief and Village Administrator need to go!
June 10th, 2009 at 2:45 pmIt will be interesting to see what Fieger does with this with case. I don’t know if he has been down in Toledo before. The media should have a field day with this one.
June 10th, 2009 at 4:27 pmMichael wrote:
just out of curiosity, what should either of those people done to prevent any of those things? should they have told deters “hey be sure not to beat anybody up tonight?” he and officer whats-his-name in this incident both had the same training as probably every other police officer in the state of ohio, could it be that maybe they just had a night where they made some really, really poor choices that nobody could have seen coming? i’m not familiar with the siwiki homicide or any civil rights investigations, perhaps you could elaborate on those
June 10th, 2009 at 9:16 pmmy bad, i should have realized the civil rights investigations were connected with suron jacobs. but was there evidence of actual prejudice? i read that a study was done that showed that no ethnic group was ticketed at a higher rate than another
June 10th, 2009 at 10:33 pmI am inclined to agree with Michael. Although it can always be debated whether or not poor conduct is forseeable, the culture of any organization is the soul responsibility of top management and is often the root cause of other underlying problems. It would be unusual if the offending officers did not exhibit warning signs prior to “going off”. I would be curious to learn if anything in these cops backgrounds should have raised flags as well.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061123/NEWS03/611230473
I did a Toledo Blade search, here are just a few headings from stories in the past:
-Ottawa Hills officer shoots motorcyclist after short chase
-Woman files $9M lawsuit in Ottawa Hills traffic stop
-Ottawa Hills apologizes for conduct of an officer
-Village looks for traffic stop race bias
-Ottawa Hills racial bias case settled
-Police action in black’s arrest protested 60 gather in Ottawa Hills for rally against racism
-Black man sues police, Ottawa Hills over arrest
-Arrest in Ottawa Hills ruled unconstitutional
-U.S. starts inquiry of police in Ottawa Hills
with headlines like these, shouldn’t someone start asking questions?
~Jen
June 10th, 2009 at 11:21 pmDoes this police dept’ employ dash cams? This looks very bad.
A friend of mine and I talked about this a couple of years ago. We were going to do some unscientific experimentation with some suburban areas that are highly rumored to do DWB stops. This is one of the areas I understand to be an issue.
But I don’t think race is an issue with the McCloskey case.
What Jenny posted above just looks so bad taken as a conglomeration.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:55 pmi appreciate your research-though i will say that most of those headlines are only related to 2 particular incidents (i’m think). you’re right that someone should be asking questions, in fact it seems that someone already has, if the u.s. investigated the department. did they find evidence of racism or corruption? or is that a stereotype that has been assigned based on 2 very public misdeeds. i know it can be difficult to figure out how or why, but sometimes people do things that are just beyond explanation. i’m guessing that both officers received the same training, psychiatric evaluations and other testing as every other cop in the state. i doubt that either would have lasted very long if they had violent outbreaks in the past. and maybe i’m wrong but beyond “hey lets make sure nobody breaks the law” i doubt that the leadership encourages that type of action either.
June 11th, 2009 at 12:05 amas a longtime resident of oh i don’t think i speak for myself when i say what happened a few weeks ago was terrible both for mr. mccloskey and our community. and we all want to know just what happened and see justice. but it concerns me when people want to assign blame to those who don’t necessarily deserve it. what could anybody have done to prevent this? if it could have been prevented, don’t you think it would have been?
i suppose we’ll probably never agree on whether or not the officer is solely responsible (assuming there is wrongdoing of course, the ag’s office still hasn’t said anything) or if somebody else could have intervened, but i appreciate that this board has for the most part been much more thought out and calm than the other one about this case. keep it up please!
I read the amount he was suing the city for. He’s only asking for $750,000.00 for all this! He’s going to be paralyzed, come on. For one, he’s obviously an energetic guy, works out regularly and he’s going to be paralyzed for the rest of his life, not to mention mental anguish, possible depression, etc. I’d be suing the city for millions! This city has gone to SHIT! The mayor is SHIT and so are his cronies! Let’s impeach Carty!
June 17th, 2009 at 11:35 amThis incident has nothing to do with Toledo or Carty…it happened in Ottawa Hills
June 17th, 2009 at 1:44 pmNoticed the other threat that comments have been closed.. Must have been a court order circulating… Now only if someone from Ottawa Hills fill in the public as to what is the current status!
June 29th, 2009 at 5:29 pmNo Court Order – the blog software automatically closes comments after a certain time period when there have been no new comments
June 29th, 2009 at 6:04 pmthanks Lisa.. I didn’t think of people loosing interest…
June 29th, 2009 at 6:46 pmNo, they aren’t and it is taking a very long time for any type of an update.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:54 pmI don’t think anyone involved has lost interest, but i do find it strange that after a certain amount of time the blog is closed for comments. It seems like it has been closed for about a week now, yet the last comment was made June 22nd on monday afternoon. Can you please explain this to me since you run the blog yet you only pretend to actually know how it works.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:58 am“Walter” if you look at older posts on the blog – they are closed to comments after a certain time period. It is because older posts tend to attract spam comments, it is a consistent thing done with every post that reaches a certain time period and has not had a recent comment.
One post on the other side of the Ottawa Hills as an example that is also closed.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:20 amthis smells fishy….
so, what is the “certain period of time”?
(and is this “certain period of time” the same for all bogs??)
ps… OHPD will be found guilty!
July 1st, 2009 at 4:40 amon this blog alone there is a period from june 17th- june 29th without any comments at all. I count more than 10 days yet the blog stayed open. Fishy indeed. fishy like a mullet
July 1st, 2009 at 9:14 amAuto-Close Comments, Pingbacks and Trackbacks is the name of the wordpress plug in I use. It’s pretty simple, it’s been explained several times and there has never been a time period on this blog in recent history where there were no comments.
Every single post is closed to comments after 60 days – I did have it set for 30 days – unless there has been a recent comment on that post.
The only thing that’s fishy is some of you trying to make an issue of something that’s a simple blog management tool that helps me prevent having to deal with spam. There have been over 10,181 spam comments that my spam software has caught, prior to using the close comments plug in that would have been triple. It saves me time so I don’t have to go back into older comments and delete spam. I could set the plug in to close comments to any time period I want, or I could manually over ride it. Since there is nothing new being added to this discussion there was no point.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:46 amhow can u say NOTHING NEW was being added when you closed it down for comments??
walter is right, there has been longer times without posts on this thread! (and many others)
for the sake of free and open speech you sould reopen it asao
July 1st, 2009 at 2:38 pmWalter is wrong as well as you are, especially since you are not paying attention to the basics which I’ve explained in detail. This thread is still open, there are no new comments except the two of you trying to create conspiracy theories about a plug in used on this blog for over a year that closes comments on old posts.
There is no reason to re-open comments on that thread, when something new is finally out there, a new post will be written.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:45 pmohh there is something new!! the cop, THOMAS WHITE, has now been charged with felonious assult with a gun and is facing up to 11 years in prison!!!
toledoblade.com
(if you ask me, he should be in prison just as long as Mike is stuck in a wheelchair!)
i said it from the very start OHPD=Guilty!
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:57 pmyeah Insider,
good thing you were patient enough to allow the investigation to run it’s course.
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 pmWhile it appears something criminal occurred based on the indictment, I simply would caution those who have not jumped to conclusions yet, not to now.
As the cliche’ goes, “You can indict a ham sandwich.”
Grand Juries are one sided, the politics of filing indictments is real. Trial will reveal some of the facts, and if found guilty, punishment will be dealt.
TAHL
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:20 pmA-hole… what are you gonna say after the cop is found guilty and sitting in prison???
(i bet youll be one of those people saying that hes another innocent man in prison, lol)
OHPD = GUILTY
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:25 pmToledo blade is reporting an indictment being filed!!!!
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090702/NEWS02/907029959
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:57 pmInsider wrote:
I agree lisa seems to show bias against some threads and posters, depending on the way the winds are blowing, politically, I mean.
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:41 pmI’ve already explained the process of why old threads are closed. I also am tired of your accusations Not Again, the only problem I have is with a few of you who can’t seem to follow simple rules.
Anyone paying attention can see that there is a new thread on that topic, because this story has been updated.
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:44 pmI guess I don’t see how there’s any political wind blowing. The owner of the site has stated the rules of use. Some people cannot abide by the rules.
How is this unfair? If you can’t behave yourself you’d ought to expect consequences. And if you don’t – you need to get yourself some counseling.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:59 pmcop is guilty we knew it all along. A-hole lawyer sounds like he finally coming around to accepting the fact that his name speaks true he really is an A hole.
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:47 am