The Ferguson police officer who reportedly accosted two reporters at a McDonalds is also staring at a lawsuit for allegedly choking and hog-tying a 12-year-old boy.
The Huffington Post reports that a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against Officer Justin Cosma in 2012 when he was a member of the Jefferson County Police Department. The suit claims that in June 2010, the boy was sent by his mother to check the family mailbox, which is located at the tail end of a driveway. On his way there, he encountered Cosma and his partner, who asked him if he was playing on a highway near the driveway. When the boy responded that he hadn't, the two deputies allegedly attacked him:
Then, the suit alleges, "the deputies became confrontational, frightening and intimated [the] minor child. Unprovoked and without cause, the deputies grabbed [the child], choked him around the neck and threw him to the ground. [The child] was shirtless and suffered bruising, choke marks, scrapes and cuts across his body." As a finale, the suit alleges, the officers hog tied him on the ground.
In addition to the injuries sustained, the boy's family was also forced to hire a lawyer after he was accused of resisting arrest, and third-degree "assault of a law enforcement officer." The Huffington Post adds that the lawsuit came just after Cosma moved on to the Ferguson Police Department.
What's more, the Daily Intelligencer says that Officer Eddie Boyd lll was accused of abusing children on three separate occasions between 2004 and 2006, but was demoted instead of terminated.
[via The Huffington Post, Daily Intelligencer and Gawker]
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