A man left paralyzed last year after getting shocked by an officer's Taser and falling head-first from a chain-link fence has filed a lawsuit against the city of McDonough, the former officer who chased him and the department’s former chief.
Jaylin Hughes, 19 at the time, was sitting in a car with three friends at a McDonough apartment complex on June 12, 2019, when police responded to a call about the young men smoking marijuana. Multiple patrol cars responded and at least one officer emerged with his gun drawn, according to the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. Hughes exited the vehicle and took off running, authorities said previously.
According to the suit, he managed to scale a 5½-foot fence when former Lt. Douglas Miller deployed his Taser, sending Hughes head first into the ground below with no way to brace his fall.
RELATED: Teen suffers broken neck while running from police
Hughes had dreams of becoming a physical therapist, his attorney Harold Spence told AJC.com. Now, doctors aren’t sure he’ll ever walk again.
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Body camera footage made public this week captured the aftermath of the fall. Lying motionless in the grass, Hughes can be heard asking officers for help.
“Sir, I feel like I’m going to die,” he said. “Please help me, I think I’m going to die.”
An officer believed to be Miller can be seen reaching down, touching Hughes’ hand and asking if he could feel it.
The teen’s voice broke as he replied, “No, I can’t.”
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According to the lawsuit, the fall fractured five of the seven vertebrae in Hughes’ neck, collapsed his lung and left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
Between a 12-day hospital stay at Grady Memorial and two months of inpatient therapy at the Shepherd Center, Hughes’ family has incurred nearly $1 million in medical expenses so far, Spence said.
According to the attorney, Miller should have known better than to use his Taser on someone in an elevated position.
“There are certain positions where you just don’t use a Taser because the person is vulnerable and you might cause them to suffer serious injury or death,” Spence said.
In this case, he said, Hughes had no way to protect himself as he toppled over the fence.
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In 2016, 44-year-old man died after McDonough police officers used Tasers on him during a struggle while responding to a call about a robbery involving two people at a motel, AJC.com previously reported.
MORE: GBI: Man died after police used Taser on him
Despite the man’s death, Hughes’ lawsuit alleges, the city of McDonough failed to ensure its officers received “adequate training” and “appropriate discipline” in Taser use.
The lawsuit also alleges that Hughes’ rights were violated because at the time Miller deployed the Taser, Hughes was running away and posed no threat to the officer or anyone else. He also hadn’t formally been charged with any crime.
“The police didn’t know what (the teens) were doing,” Spence said. “They were just sitting in a vehicle, four young black males. The driver of the vehicle actually lived in the apartment complex where they were parked.”
By detaining him without probable cause, the lawsuit alleges, Miller subjected Hughes “to an unlawful detention... and committed an assault and battery.”
According to Spence, Miller’s body camera footage only captured the aftermath of the fall because he failed to turn it on before arriving at the apartment complex and chasing Hughes.
Neither the city of McDonough nor its police department has returned requests for comment about the incident or the subsequent lawsuit.
According to Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council records, Miller voluntarily resigned from the McDonough Police Department last August. Spence said his resignation came amid an internal investigation into his use of force.
He joined the department in 2013 after working as a DeKalb County officer from 2000 until 2012, records show. His POST certification has since been suspended for not keeping up with the required training.
Former McDonough police Chief Preston Dorsey, who is also named in the lawsuit, left the department in May and now serves as the city administrator.
Hughes, now 20, still faces misdemeanor marijuana and obstruction charges in connection with the June 2019 chase, Spence said.
His family brought him to a court hearing in Henry County earlier this year, only to learn the hearing was postponed about an hour before it was set to begin.
— AJC data specialist Jennifer Peebles contributed to this article.
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