Martina Brady / Staff Writer
Sabrian Bruton, who previously mentored FIU students, was pulled over on July 6, 2018, by a Homestead police officer for having “an allegedly illegal license plate cover,” according to a lawsuit against the City of Homestead.
The 32-year-old says Officer Christian DeJohn approached his car with his gun drawn, followed by Officer Eileen Calvo who arrived at the scene with a taser.
According to Bruton, he fled the scene in fear of being shot by one of the officers. The police report, however, claims Bruton got back into his vehicle and drove away.
Officers DeJohn and Calvo then called four more officers for backup.
A lawsuit filed by Fischer Redavid PLLC, a personal injury law firm representing Burton, all six officers repeatedly kicked Bruton in the face and slammed his body against the ground. The police report says only one officer used force during the arrest, in response to Bruton’s resistance. Bruton was then placed into custody and detained at the Homestead Police Department.
Liz Pradel, who assists Bruton with press coverage says he was left without medical attention for over an hour while detained after the beating.
“The fire rescue team arrived, and basically said he was stable enough to be taken into jail, so that means conscious. But, he was not conscious,” said Pradel. “He does not remember being awake for half the time, half the damage that was done while being beaten.”
Bruton’s bail was set at $50,000. After his release, he was hospitalized for surgical facial reconstruction and an orbital floor fracture at Kendall Regional Hospital.
Bruton still suffers from permanent medical conditions since the incident including chronic headaches, eye pain, and numbness on the left side of his body, Pradel told PantherNOW.
Homestead PD refused to comment on the case. They provided a police report three weeks after the initial request by PantherNOW.
Four months after the incident, Bruton sued the City of Homestead. A court document from March 25, 2020, shows all three charges of excessive force, failure to intervene, and state law battery were dismissed as Bruton’s attorney from Fischer Redavid PLLC failed to provide sufficient evidence.
Attorney Lee Friedland of Friedland & Associates Bruton’s took his case due to his experience with civil rights cases. Friedland explained that even though the charges were dismissed, Bruton’s case is still viable.
“The complaint could be dismissed because the facts of the complaint were not sufficiently pled to the legal requirements,” Friedland told PanterNOW.
Friedland added, “we amended the complaint. They’ve refiled motions as the defendants but we’re still litigating.”
Before the incident, Bruton mentored children and young adults through his limited liability company, Push For Greatness. The organization aims to support underserved youth by hosting events and one-on-one mentor sessions at South Florida colleges.
“It’s basically my purpose and I want everyone to push for greatness,” said Bruton during an Instagram livestream in October of this year.
In December 2019, a year after the incident, Bruton spoke on-campus to FIU freshmen about the program’s message.
“Those kids were very inspired,” Bruton said, remembering his talk at FIU. “They were in awe because they’ve never had anyone brown-skinned tell them such things.”
According to Pradel, Bruton has not been able to serve the community in the same way since the incident but hopes to return to FIU in the future.
“I’m very distraught and very sad, but I’m also very grateful to be able to speak and tell my story today,” said Bruton on Instagram. “My mental state is very good… I keep my head in books. I read a lot. I pray a lot.”
Though he keeps a positive outlook, Pradel says, Bruton still struggles with psychological effects of trauma including insomnia and weight loss due to anxiety.
“Now he has difficulty even driving down the road out of fear that he could be assaulted and rendered, incapacitated by the actions of the people that he’s supposed to trust the most, which are police officers,” said Friedland.
Along with psychological damage, Bruton also has mounting medical debt.
Pradel started a GoFundMe to raise $80,000 for Bruton’s medical and legal fees so he can return to his life as a community leader. The proceeds will go towards Bruton’s physical and psychological therapy. So far, the GoFundMe has raised $1,669 in two months.
“The city of Homestead hit me very hard… So I turned to the people. I turned back to the community who I inspired. I turned back to the community who I need,” Bruton said in the livestream.
If Bruton wins the lawsuit against the City of Homestead, he may be awarded financial compensation. While his attorney did not specify the amount, he indicated this kind of compensation is typically substantial.
“It’s important to remember that the financial compensation… acts as a punishment on municipalities for the process of allowing police officers to overstep their [boundaries],” said Friedland.
Besides raising awareness of police brutality, Friedland said that the most important goal for this litigation is to bring justice to Bruton.
To win the lawsuit, Bruton’s legal team must prove the officers acted outside of qualified immunity- the automatic protection given to law enforcement in the line of duty.
“If you’re following a lot of the Black Lives Matter issues in the news… one of their consistent agenda items has been eliminating the concept of qualified immunity,” Friedland said.
In Pradel’s view, Bruton’s case is an example of racially motivated police violence.
“Sabrian has a clean record, not a ticket or anything,” said Pradel. “He was pulled over in a nice car, no tinted windows for what Officer DeJohn stated was a license plate cover. Who approaches a car with a gun for having a license plate cover?”
This is not the first incident of supposed racial profiling in Homestead.
In 2015, Officer Anthony Green shot and killed a suspect from inside his patrol car. It took five years for the lawsuit to receive a ruling, then ultimately dismissed. Similar instances of violence, including racial slurs and shooting, have been reported from Green.
Despite this, Friedland is still positive that Bruton’s case will be victorious.
“We think it’s gonna all come out, and we look forward to it,” Friedland added.
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