Burglar Sues Men Who Restrained him

[Glenn]

Here is a casegetting some national attention that is worth us keeping an eye on as it goes through the courts. Apparently in 2007 a burglar was physically restrained with a "shoulder hold" until police arrived, and he is now suing for $500,000 claiming he was the victim of a "rough citizens arrest" that "resulted in permanent disabilities and psychological disorders which the Plaintiff continues to suffer".

Burglar sues men who captured him, claims rough citizens arrest
By Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, July 30, 2010

ST. PETERSBURG — One October day in 2007, a homeless man broke into a car and stole a bike.

He didn't get very far.

Within minutes, that man, Michael Dupree, was caught trying to sell the bike down the street. He was arrested and sent to jail. Now, he wants payback.

Dupree, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence for burglary and cocaine possession, has filed a lawsuit against three men who helped police take him down.

Dupree says he's the victim of a rough citizens arrest, and was assaulted and battered by the men. He is seeking $500,000 and punitive damages.

"It's laughable," said Anthony McKoy, one of the men being sued. "It's a waste of taxpayer money."

McKoy says he remembers Dupree well.

He says that on the morning of Oct. 11, 2007, he was working at his business on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street S.

At some point, he went into his office for something. When he came back, he noticed that the passenger window of one of his vehicles was broken.

He quickly spotted Dupree, who had a red bike that had been inside the vehicle.

McKoy and two other men gave chase. They found Dupree hiding naked a few hundred feet away. McKoy says he put Dupree in a shoulder hold until officers arrived.

According to a police report, Dupree, was homeless at the time. He has a criminal record dating back to 1990.

Dupree told police that a guy had given him the bike and he went to the corner store and was trying to sell it.

Then, he said, McKoy and the other men jumped him, pointed a gun at him, placed a knee painfully on his spine and handcuffed him. Dupree claims in his suit, which he filed without a lawyer, that the take-down "resulted in permanent disabilities and psychological disorders which the Plaintiff continues to suffer."

Dupree was convicted of burglary in 2008. He is serving his sentence at the Apalachee Correctional Institution in Sneads. He pleaded no contest to the drug charge and is serving a concurrent sentence of nearly three years.

McKoy said he couldn't believe it when he was served with Dupree's lawsuit earlier this month.

"I thought it was a joke," McKoy said. "I'm the victim."

McKoy said he expects the suit to be dismissed.

"What gall," he said. "I guess time in prison just makes you go crazy."

[Bill Glasheen]

Then, he said, McKoy and the other men jumped him, pointed a gun at him, placed a knee painfully on his spine and handcuffed him. Dupree claims in his suit, which he filed without a lawyer, that the take-down "resulted in permanent disabilities and psychological disorders which the Plaintiff continues to suffer."

Anybody can sue anyone for anything. That doesn't mean they're going to prevail.

One advantage of being worth nothing is that you have nothing to lose. Bums in prison have nothing to do but go into the library and file this stuff. They can keep the courts busy for a while. They can cost you in attorney fees. But ultimately it'll get dismissed.

Moral of the story? Fight for tort reform. This is a waste of taxpayer money, and a burden on good citizens who removed a cancer from society. There ought to be a severe penalty for abuse of due process.

And as much as I'd like to remind folks that dead men don't sue... Don't. Be one of the good guys.

- Bill

[Glenn]

As someone who was sued without merit last year, and it isn't over yet because they cannot locate one of the defendants, I can definitely attest that it is expensive and frustrating. We are approaching one year that this has been going on.

How's the Derby City treating you Bill?

[Bill Glasheen]

How's the Derby City treating you Bill?

Very well. It's a special place, and appears to be growing.

If only I could get more sleep...

- Bill

[Glenn]

Burning the midnight oil trying to get up to speed on the new job?

[Bill Glasheen]

Being the first to come in and the last to leave...

[Glenn]

Fortunately it will get better with time.

[Panther]

And as much as I'd like to remind folks that dead men don't sue... Don't. Be one of the good guys.

- Bill

But Bill-Sensei... They don't even talk about suing!

[Chris McKaskell]

We've had a case going on around here where a store owner caught a shoplifter and detained him (without injury). In the end the shoplifter was given 30 days and the store owner was charged with kidnapping, forcable confinement, carrying a concealed weapon, among others -- and faced the possibility of years behind bars......

I believe the indictable offences were dropped, but he's still going to trail for the others.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/a ... rocer-says

Without going into too much detail, we had a situation recently where someone was caught in the act and the emergency opperator immediately advised NOT to touch the perp, or we would be charged with assault. So it became a matter of following him around till the police arrived to arrest him.

It was quite comical really: Perp, "Hey, get away from me!" Victim, "Nope, not till the police arrive."

And this is the law here - it doesn't begin to touch on matters of personal liability/litigation etc.

[Bill Glasheen]

Richmond had a case that went for "the good guys." Guy gets out of prison. Within a week, he holds up an ice cream store - with a BB gun. Of course the folks in the store didn't know any better, and assumed it was a real gun. Well... Robber tells the people (at gun point) to go into the back of the store. Now... Anybody who knows stats would think that this is a very, very bad thing. If he really had a gun (that fired bullets) and he was taking you to the 2nd crime scene, the odds weren't good. Well... the manager on duty finds and pulls out a pistol, and starts shooting. That's all justifiable, except for one detail. He chases the guy out of the store and continues to shoot as the guy is running away. Eventually the guy drops a few blocks later, and dies.

The DA wanted to charge the manager so badly that he could taste it. He was making all kinds of noise to the press about it. Meanwhile, store owners in the are were sick and tired of the repeated, unsolved, armed robberies, and so they went bullschit. There were city-wide protests in favor of the manager who shot the perp - a convicted felon ONE WEEK out of prison.

In the end the DA couldn't prove that the bullet which killed the robber was fired outside the store. So there wasn't enough evidence to bring charges.

That really was a rather interesting - and perfectly fair - case, and one worth discussing in a martial arts and self-defense class.

Bill

[cxt]

Buddy of mine was attacked while he and wife were leaving a bar and grill.......the guys that jumped him had been tossed out and they waited around for him to leave.

His wife ran for help and he fought them both------they were very drunk which meant that they couldn't fight very well but they didn't really feel much immediate pain.

The attack happend in front of people and was caught on several security cameras.

Both men sued him (in civil court) for lost wages, inability to work, pain and suffering, long term injuries that might prevent them from going back to work for years.

End result was that they got a short stint in the county lock up and he paid them nothing........but it cost him well over 5K + in legal fees.

He later quiped that for that kind of money he should have just taken the beating.

[Panther]

He later quiped that for that kind of money he should have just taken the beating.

Do me a favor... Tell him that (and folks here who know me know that this if from first-hand experience) it is far better to spend some money on legal fees than spend a LONG time recuperating from injuries suffered at the hands of low-lifes... I might suggest that he NOW counter-sue them for HIS lost time and money in having to fight their frivolous lawsuit. Since he was successful in his defense, both physical AND legal, from these punks and given the fact that they were convicted and did time for their crime, they would only hurt their case if they were to try to re-open any prior complaint that they've already lost. However, if for no other reason than effin' payback, your friend could spend a little $$ and cost THEM a LOT of $$ defending his civil lawsuit against THEM. THEY were the perps, HE is the victim. In fact, his WIFE also has a case for "alienation of affection" because I'm SURE that they were unable to have "relations" because of the emotional stress created by these punks. If he's in the PROMA, I might be able to suggest a good attorney...

[Bill Glasheen]

I'm siding with Panther here.

Only $5 K to defend yourself against these ridiculous charges? I would have offered my attorney an additional $10 K to make life a living hell for these idiots with even more stupid attorneys trolling for bucks. And while I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere, I would have investigated with the ABA whether or not their attorneys were serving their clients properly by taking on such stupid cases. When you get to situations like this, you need to throttle the professional bloodsuckers as well. Maybe you wouldn't have gotten anywhere. But did it wreck your life spending so much time defending yourself against such nonsense? Don't you think a not-so-successful attorney taking on such ridiculous work would be similarly inconvenienced by having his name and reputation attacked in the courts and - better yet - in the local press?

Then after you are done, write a book and earn a few bucks on it all.

Zanshin, my friends. When the fight ends, often the fight has only begun. Dot the i's and cross the t's.

- Bill

[cxt]

5K was quite a bit at the time for him........and that was to make a clearly bogus case go away. He only had to pay his attorney. And his attorney was decent guy.

The guy that represented the 2 idiots is no longer in business......at least not in that town.

The 2 idiots had no funds or anything to take.....of course.
Job prospects were limited from the get go and whom has the time to track then down once they get out?

People can sue you for anything..........and they will do so.

I'd like to see a "loser pays" kind of thing. It would help stop stuff like that.

The other thing I learned was always go stright to the LEO's and report any incident like that.....no matter how much you were "in the right" or how little damage you think you did.

Pain in the neck now but it could really come in handy later.

[Chris McKaskell]

Doesn't the loser pay the legal bills there?

Here, so far as I know, it's pretty standard - if you make claims against someone and the court rules against you you're often required to pay their legal expenses as well as your own. Consequently - and I do have some experience here - most things settle out of court during the process of discovery.

Problem, of course, is when you win a judgement, but the opposition has no money -- can't get blood from a stone no matter how many ruings you may have against it.