ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A homeless man left paralyzed after suffering an injury in a police van is suing the city of St. Petersburg, Florida.
The family of Heriberto Alejandro Sanchez-Mayen has filed a federal lawsuit in the Middle District of Florida, citing police brutality and a violation of his civil rights.
On June 8, 2023, Sanchez-Mayen was accused of trespassing by St. Petersburg police officer Sarah Gaddis, who is named in the lawsuit. Sanchez-Mayen’s attorneys allege he was detained illegally for sleeping in a vacant lot.
He was put into a police transport van while wearing handcuffs attached to a chain around his body. This limited the use of his arms, and he was not restrained in the vehicle, according to the lawsuit.
Michael Thacker, an officer named in the complaint, is also accused of driving the van “in a reckless manner” and intentionally slamming on the brakes. Another detainee was riding in a separate area of the van and, according to the lawsuit, “repeatedly kicked the Transport Van’s inner wall four times.”
Video from inside the vehicle shows when Sanchez-Mayen slid off the bench and hit his head on the bulkhead of the van, knocking him unconscious. The suit alleges Thacker checked the cameras and observed Sanchez-Mayen lying face down and motionless but did not check on him until they reached the jail.
“They didn’t pull over, they didn’t check on him, they didn’t render him aid, they just kept driving,” an attorney representing Sanchez-Mayen said. “Then when they got to the jail, they didn’t treat him like a human being. They literally pulled him out by his ankles.”
Footage from inside the van showed the officer shaking Sanchez-Mayen in an attempt to wake him up. He then dragged him, face down, out of the van by his feet. Sanchez-Mayen also appeared to hit his head on the door of the van and the concrete floor.
Sanchez-Mayen was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for “permanent and severe injuries to his cervical spine, which rendered him a quadriplegic and resulted in the amputation of both of his legs above the knee,” the lawsuit stated.
Hernandez drove from Pennsylvania to be with him in the hospital once she learned of his injuries.
“I would find my brother laying the hospital bed with a spinal cord injury caused at the hands of the officers who would have been protecting him,” Hernandez said.
She said Sanchez-Mayen now spends his days at a nursing home.
“Before this incident, Heriberto was a fun, happy, kind person who made friends everywhere he went,” she said.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the City of St. Petersburg said the police department “denies the claims and trusts in the judicial process.”