Driver with paraplegia receives $15,000 settlement after being yanked from car by police

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The city of Oakland has agreed to pay $15,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that police yanked a paraplegic from his car and threw him to the ground during a traffic stop.

Lorenzo Crenshaw said he was the victim of an "unwarranted detention and vicious assault" after being pulled over by Officers Rochard Holton and Shane Tarum in his 1972 Chevrolet Caprice on Howe Street on Oct. 29, 2007.

After asking for his license and registration, the officers told Crenshaw, then 31, that he could reach for the items in a bag under the seat, the suit said. But as he did so, an officer grabbed him, slammed him down on the pavement and put a knee in his back, causing him "excruciating pain," the suit said.

"As he fought back the pain and tears, Mr. Crenshaw yelled out that he was disabled and paralyzed from the waist down," said the suit filed by Oakland attorneys John Burris and Adanté Pointer.

Crenshaw was released after officers didn't find any contraband on him or in his car, which he drives with the help of hand controls, the suit said. Crenshaw said he had been on his way to visit his mother at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center when he was stopped.

City officials denied any wrongdoing. City Attorney John Russo said in a memo to the City Council that he recommended that the city settle the suit "due to the potential for a higher award from the court." Crenshaw had originally sought $1 million.

The council approved the settlement in closed session earlier this month and is expected to formally ratify it Tuesday.