Police in Ferguson had mistakenly arrested a man before the Michael Brown shooting and, after realizing, proceeded to beat him up in a holding cell and then charge him with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms, it has been claimed.
Henry Davis, 52, had missed his turn off for the Missouri city of St. Charles during heavy rain late at night on September 20, 2009, pulling over about 20 miles away in Ferguson.
While waiting for the rain to clear about 3am, a patrol officer ran Davis' plates and arrested him on an outstanding warrant - however it was the wrong Henry Davis.
The wanted man had a different middle name and Social Security number, but Davis, a welder, said the officer cuffed him and put him into a patrol car without explanation, The Daily Beast reported.
'Excessive force': Henry Davis, 52, said in a lawsuit that he was arrested by Ferguson in September 2009 for no reason, severely beaten in lock-up and then charged with 'property damage' for bleeding on the uniforms of four officers
Davis had protested his innocence, and said the cops realized their mistake at Ferguson police station, recalling a booking officer saying: 'We have a problem.'
But Davis was placed in a one-man cell, which already had one man asleep on the only single bed.
Being early morning and cold, he asked for a sleeping mat from a nearby pile, but was refused.
Some time later, Davis said in a lawsuit file thereafter, the booking officer returned to the cell with three other officers.
He said he was slammed against the back wall by one of them and told to lay down with his hands behind his back.
Davis was straddled by a female officer, he said, and cuffed.
Two officers then entered the cell, he said.
'They started hitting me,' Davis later said in court, according to The Daily Beast.
'I was getting hit and I just covered up'
The two left and the female officer returned, holding up Davis' head.
The officer that initially slammed him against the wall returned and kicked him in the head.
'I almost passed out at that point ... Paramedics came,' Davis said.
'They said it was too much blood, I had to go to the hospital.'
Davis was taken to hospital in a police vehicle, however he refused treatment, demanding a witness and photo proof of what had happened.
Afterwards, still under arrest, he was taken back to the police station and held in a cell for several days.
Davis was eventually charged with four counts of property damage - having allegedly bled on the uniforms of four officers - and released on $1,500 bail.
Davis subsequently filed a civil suit, and at least two of the officers involved said in court they did not get blood on their uniforms.
There was no video of the alleged police attack to support Davis' claims of brutality, because the security cameras were VHS at the time and had been recorded at 32 times the normal speed.
A federal magistrate ruled that if the officers had committed perjury about the bloody uniforms, the charges were too minor to press ahead with.
The magistrate also concluded that Davis' injuries were too minor to constitute excessive force.
However a CAT scan taken after the incident confirmed he had suffered a concussion.
The property charges were dropped and the lawsuit was closed.
Davis' lawyer, James Schottel, is currently preparing an appeal, he told The Daily Beast.
Schottel claims that perjury is perjury however minor, and that a concussion is now considered a serious injury.
Schottel also believes that Davis' chances of appealing have now gone up on the back of the Michael Brown outrage and the increasing scrutiny of the police in Ferguson.
