News Reader.info

LAGUNA BEACH — A man whose alleged beating by Laguna Beach police officers was captured on videotape is suing the city and the Police Department for brutality. The lawsuit, filed in U.S.

District Court in Los Angeles, asks the federal court to award unspecified monetary damages for Kevin A. Dunbar’s injuries, as well as make the city pay fines for the police officers’

conduct. The lawsuit also asks for damages from the police officers involved in the incident. Dunbar filed a $10-million police brutality claim against the city in December, but the claim

was rejected by the City Council. In the lawsuit, Dunbar alleges that Officer Keith Knotek kicked him during his arrest last June 17 while he was being held on the ground by other officers

and that police continued to harass him for days and months afterward. Police arrested Dunbar on warrants after he failed to appear in court on misdemeanor charges of drinking in public and

related charges. He was released the next day. A few days later, the suit alleges, police officers found Dunbar, placed him in a chokehold and threatened to kill him unless he left the city.

Dunbar, 25, said he was homeless that summer and spent much of his time in the community and sleeping on the beach. “They were just always harassing me every day,” Dunbar said Friday. After

he was threatened, he moved to Wyoming for about four months. A district attorney’s office investigation of Dunbar’s allegations is still being conducted. Jeffrey Werthiemer, an attorney

handling the case for the city of Laguna Beach, said Friday that he hasn’t received a copy of the lawsuit and cannot comment on it. In the police report of Dunbar’s June arrest, no mention

is made of him being kicked, but it does say that Dunbar swung his fist at Officer Michael Donohue before being taken into custody. Dunbar has denied trying to hit the officer. Besides the

allegations stemming from his June arrest, Dunbar’s suit against the city also alleges that police arrested him Dec. 14 in retaliation for filing his $10-million claim against the city one

day earlier. A week later, Dunbar’s attorney, Christopher B. Mears, showed a videotape to the news media that allegedly shows Dunbar being arrested by police in June. Dunbar had turned the

tape over to an acquaintance in December, who gave copies to Mears and the Orange County district attorney’s office. The two-minute tape begins by showing police surrounding a man lying on

the sidewalk in front of a South Laguna sandwich shop. One officer, whom Police Chief Neil J. Purcell later identified as Knotek, kicks three or four times at someone on the ground. Dunbar

said the officer kicked him in the head, unprovoked. After seeing the tape, Purcell immediately restricted Knotek to office duties and began an internal investigation of the incident. The

district attorney also began an investigation to determine if criminal charges should be brought against any of the officers. On Friday, Purcell said he is frustrated that the district

attorney’s criminal investigation has taken so long. Although Purcell doesn’t believe the district attorney’s office is dragging its feet, the length of these types of investigations “has

something to do with the eroding of the public trust of the police,” he said. Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace Wade said Friday that all probable witnesses have been interviewed in the matter, but

the interviews will take at least a week to be assembled into reports for review. MORE TO READ