BELMONT, N.C.,None — Two former Belmont residents say that police unjustly handcuffed them and used excessive force when arresting them on trumped up charges.
A Gaston County jury will decide if police overstepped their bounds when arresting the man and woman more than three years ago.
Retired Belmont Police Chief David James sat in court Monday afternoon to dispute the allegations against him and the department he once led.
According to the suit, a Belmont police officer drove to Southridge Drive to serve a warrant on Michael Gutkowski in June 2008.
Several neighbors and their children were outside and walked over to express concern about the matter when the officer called for back up.
Five police cars came into the neighborhood in excess of 60 mph, according to the lawsuit.
Rochele Lynn Prince was outside with her 3-year-old daughter at the time. Prince said one of the police cars came close to running down her child who was on a tricycle.
When Prince began yelling to her children to go inside, Belmont Police Officer John Wilson screamed at her to shut up, according to the suit.
Wilson ordered Prince arrested and another officer handcuffed her and put her in a closed patrol car without any air conditioning on or windows cracked, court documents say.
The lawsuit alleges that police also used excessive force in the arrest of another neighbor, Michael Clark.
Clark was walking toward his house when an officer pointed a Taser at him and ordered the man to put his hands on the vehicle, according to the court documents.
Clark and Prince say they were unlawfully arrested and could not get police to tell them what charges they faced while they were being taken into custody.
Clark says that his handcuffs were too tight while he was being taken to jail, causing him back pain and making his hands go numb.
He also said police dragged him out of the patrol car by his legs.
Prince hyperventilated in the back of the patrol car and was told to shut up when she pleaded for police to contact her husband so she could get her anti-anxiety medication, documents state.
Not only did police use excessive force, but they had no cause to arrest Price and Clark, according to attorney Bill Moore.
"None of the officers out there had any grounds to arrest these folks," Moore said Monday afternoon in court.
Clark and Prince each got released from jail on unsecured bonds.
Charges were later dismissed. But they wanted answers.
The two Belmont residents and their spouses contacted Belmont City Council. They were promised answers in the form of a town meeting once James had conducted an investigation, according to the lawsuit.
No such meeting was ever held, the suit states and no disciplinary action against the officers was ever made known to Clark and Prince, according to the suit.
The two were eventually asked to sign a waiver not to sue the city or the police department.
"Feeling fearful and unsafe in the community with a renegade police force, both the Clarks and the Princes put their house up for sale," court documents say.
Each sought treatment to help them deal with the stress from the incident.
Neither lives in Belmont today.
Prince and Clark filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Belmont, the Belmont Police Department, Wilson, James and Donna Sheppard.
Sheppard's involvement in the case began with a disagreement with Gutkowski. Her dispute with the plaintiffs was later settled out of court.
Wilson still works for the Belmont Police Department.
Sheppard's teenage son was skateboarding in the neighborhood and had an unfriendly exchange with Gutkowski, which eventually led to the woman taking out an arrest warrant against her neighbor, according to Moore.
Prince and Clark are seeking restitution of $10,000 in the suit they filed in November 2009.
"Plaintiffs suffered physical and emotional damages, harm to their reputation, humiliation, embarrassment, mental anguish, and distress by being unlawfully detained, arrested and brought to trial on false criminal charges and unfounded allegations made by defendants," court documents say.
Day in court
Superior Court Judge Forrest Bridges is presiding over the civil trial.
Motions were heard Monday afternoon followed by the start of jury selection.
WSOC
