A man who fled Burlington police in 2018 has sued the department, claiming officers injured him during the subsequent arrest.
Mohamed Luhizo is the third black man to file suit against the department for separate incidents that happened in the fall of 2018. All three plaintiffs are represented by attorney Evan Chadwick.
Luhizo’s civil complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, alleges officers used excessive force while taking him into custody early on October 6, 2018. It further contends that the Burlington Police Department has engaged in a pattern of using unlawful force against people of color.
Anticipating “legal interest” in the case, Burlington police publicly released some body camera video from the incident on December 31, noting that the city’s citizen police commission had previously reviewed the officers’ actions and determined they were “within guidelines.”
Deputy Chief Jon Murad said in an interview Wednesday that the videos evidenced “good police work” by officers who were responding to a crime in progress by men with known felony records for violent offenses.
The incident took place around 2:30 a.m. on October 6, 2018, when six officers approached a group of men along Main Street that included Luhizo, then 21, and his 23-year-old brother, Luhizo Luhizo. Police said the officers were attempting to break up a fight — which the civil complaint referred to as “roughhousing” among friends.
“As the sergeant and another officer attempted to handcuff Luhizo Luhizo, Mohamed Luhizo shoved both of them as they were attempting to handcuff his brother,” the police department wrote in its press release. “Luhizo Luhizo kicked the sergeant in the chest and chin, injuring him. Mohamed Luhizo then attempted to flee the scene on foot.”
Several officers chased Mohamed until he slowed down near a curb. At that point, the officer nearest him collided with Mohamed and they fell to the ground.
Shortly thereafter, a second officer arrived and helped pin Mohamed on his stomach. That’s when a third cop, Derek Hodges, arrived and “dropped his knee onto Mohamed’s face with significant force,” breaking his jaw, the lawsuit alleges. In the three videos reviewed by Seven Days, Mohamed can be heard expressing pain as soon as Hodges kneeled down.
Chadwick told Seven Days that the officers’ initial involvement was warranted but that Mohamed was already in custody by the time Hodges injured his client.
“There is absolutely no justification for that,” he said.
The lawsuit says that the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office ultimately dropped the charges against Mohamed. But while his case was pending, Mohamed racked up unrelated offenses and ultimately pleaded guilty to charges of lewd and lascivious conduct, driving under the influence and providing false information to a police officer. He spent a total of 180 days in jail and is currently on probation, according to police.
His brother, Luhizo Luhizo, served a 30 to 60 day jail sentence after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, according to Burlington police.
Murad said the department reviewed the incident after receiving notice that a judge had rejected a civil suit in state court. Chadwick said Mohamed had tried to file a suit while behind bars, but he didn’t have an attorney’s help and did not properly serve the defendants.
On Wednesday, Chadwick provided Seven Days with additional bodycam footage captured by Hodges. The attorney opined that the police department should have included the video its December 31 release.
The new footage shows the initial altercation and includes additional audio of the pursuit. As Hodges begins pursing Mohamed, he can be heard yelling “get that motherfucker!” When he later kneels down, his knee is not visible in the frame.
Murad said the department released the angles that “gave the most complete picture” of the interaction.
Several of the responding officers in the Luhizo incident have been involved in other recent high-profile cases involving force. The month prior, Sgt. Jason Bellavance, a shift supervisor, shoved an unsuspecting black man into a wall, knocking him unconscious.
Bellavance was later suspended for his actions in that incident, though not until after the Luhizo chase. The man who was pushed and his brothers are currently suing Burlington police for excessive force; they’re also represented by Chadwick.
Another officer who responded to the Luhizo incident, Cory Campbell, was reprimanded last week for using profanity during a 2019 interaction with a man outside of the University of Vermont Medical Center. A fistfight ensued, and 54-year-old Douglas Kilburn died days later.
Read the complaint here:
Related Stories
Cut the Police: The Bid to Slash Law Enforcement Funding in Vermont
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Boohoo . If that’s no clear enough , I have absolutely no sympathy for this young man .
The attorney’s need to start going after the state & corporate organizations that train these sociopaths to behave this way in the course of public service. The amount of training courses and seminars they go through is immense. One of the State’s favorite ways to spend taxpayer dollars with organizations their cronies own.
Can you please identify the organizations who you claim are getting these police training contracts and exactly who the *cronies* are who own them and exactly who in state government they are *cronies* of.
I’m usually quick to criticize the BPD when I feel they’re out of line (and they were out of line a lot under BDP and his fake accounts), but they did nothing wrong here as far as I can tell. The ‘victim’ escalated the situation and resisted arrest, and while there was certainly force used in the response, I fail to see anything excessive.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Was Hodges reprimanded for his language? It sounds like BPD has a problem with that. I’ve heard them swearing all of the time about people..
Where is the knee to the face? Is it right before the hat flies off? If so, it is really hard to determine much of anything there. I mean maybe the officer was trying to deliver a little something extra to think about but I don’t see how one can build a case for it on this video. It’s pretty bang, bang at that point. If the officer realizes the suspect is under control and uses excessive force then he hides it well in the flow of action. Plus, I wouldn’t say the suspect was completely apprehended when the hat flies off.
As a taxpayer I’m just so infuriated watching this….all I see is immature grade-school boys (on both sides) in a cat fight and $$$$ flowing out of State and City budgets.
While the police despicable conduct should not be ignored, it’s also very clear that the justice system is not working for these brothers. All they are doing is becoming a public nuisance for the City and racking up prison bills for taxpayers. Throwing the Luhizos back in jail won’t discourage their behavior.
On a related note, del Pozo was not fit to be a police chief because he was too soft. He was too soft on crime (couldn’t say “no”), and he was too soft on his own police officers. He lacked the stomach to discipline his own officers the same way he lacked the stomach to tell protesters blocking Main Street (after totally fake “it’s ok to be white” flyers were found) that they can’t block traffic in the City’s most prominent bottleneck. This episode is still a legacy of de Pozo. I have confidence Chief Morrison has the integrity and willingness to take tough, decisive action that will result in a high-functioning and transparent department.
Knowyourassumptions (I’m starting to wonder if we haven’t found Mayor Miro’s pseudonym) While I have many inroads to spaces & happenings hidden behind the “thin blue line”, that I’m not going to reveal for your benefit. I’ll encourage you to just simply open your eyes and look around. Here, scroll around on this page, take notice of the fearmongering, brainwashing and professionally engineered propaganda, along with endless lists of wonderful “police products”.
Take notice the O in Police is a rifle scope crosshair… Wonder what that’s for?
https://www.policemag.com/issues/2014-11
@ Freedom:
Your specific accusation was that Vermont is spending money on corporations that train police officers, and that those corporations are owned by “cronies” of people in Vermont government. That is what you said. Specifically.
Giving us a copy of a link to a national law enforcement trade publication that has nothing to do with Vermont does not answer my question or support the specific accusation that you made.
State’s attorney later dropped charges againt repeat offender. WTF do you think police are supposed to do when a suspect is fleeing and resisting arrest, talk nice? Soft on crime = not putting the public’s safety FIRST. Getting & keeping scumbags off the streets is what I call fighting crime. Please stop criticizing & second-guessing our police and defending criminal behavior.