A settlement has been reached in a federal civil rights lawsuit involving a white Fairfax County police officer who tasered and struck a Black man without apparent provocation.

Lamonta Gladney filed the lawsuit against Officer Tyler Ryan Timberlake in March 2021, claiming the cop violated his constitutional rights when using excessive force to falsely arrest him. More than a year later, the parties finally reached a settlement, according to court documents filed earlier this month. WTOP first reported the news.

Neither party admitted liability as part of the settlement, and Gladney will file to have it dismissed,  according to a statement from Jeff McKay, Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Other details of the agreement were not released. Attorneys for Gladney and Timberlake did not respond to media requests.

“Moving forward, I have full faith in [Fairfax County Police] Chief [Kevin] Davis and our police department to continue making progress on important issues such as use of force, de-escalation, communication, community outreach, and building trust,” McKay said in the statement. “Fairfax County is the safest jurisdiction of its size in the U.S. and that is due to our police department and our community working together to achieve this. Safety and justice can absolutely go hand-in-hand, and Fairfax County will continue to strive to meet this critical moment.”

Gladney requested to be compensated for the losses he experienced, as well as to correct government procedures to prevent future injuries, according to an amended complaint filed May 2021 in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria. In an interview with The Washington Post, Gladney said he hoped to put an end to unwarranted police stops in his community so people could move around freely without fear of law enforcement.

Fairfax County police released body-worn camera footage of the June 2020 incident, which shows Gladney pacing in circles and struggling to communicate with emergency personnel before Timberlake arrives on the scene and quickly uses a stun gun to detain him. When he falls to the ground, video shows Timberlake placing his knee on the Gladney’s back and neck, and then striking and tasering him on the neck. Gladney can be heard pleading “No!” and yelling “I can’t breathe!”

Gladney suffered “serious physical and emotional injury” due to the incident, according to the complaint.

The complaint says Gladney was unarmed and had no outstanding warrants. He also did not appear threatening. Police footage shows a second police officer and other emergency personnel trying to pursued Gladney to go into an ambulance so he could get treatment just before Timberlake arrived.

The Fairfax County Police Department said in a statement that officers arrived to the scene to respond to “a man in crisis wandering the roadway” in the county’s Mount Vernon district. According to the complaint, Gladney contacted an ambulance for a friend who required immediate medical attention. Gladney had been “overcome with anxiety and panic which seemingly rendered him unable to comprehend and communicate” out of concern for his friend.

Timberlake, who had been with the Fairfax County Police Department for eight years, was charged with a misdemeanor assault, although a grand jury found him not guilty.

Previously: 
Fairfax Police Officer Who Tased A Man Found Not Guilty Of Assault

Fairfax County Police Disproportionately Use Force On Black People, New Report Shows

This post has been updated with a statement from Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.