Mother Sues Police for handcuffing and detaining his special need son (Video)

 

Bianca Digennaro, 48, mother of an 8 year old boy with special needs who was filmed handcuffed by a policeman inside a school has sued the city, the school district and 3 officers that handcuffed and detained her son, the Miami Herald reported. 

The lawsuit alleged that the defendants violated the boy's civil rights by using excessive force, not intervening in his arrest and not considering his disabilities during the incident.

The boy's mother said, "My son has a disability and the authorities tried to make him a criminal," 

"I'm here for my son, because I refuse to let them make him a convicted felon at the age of eight, just because he was having a mental breakdown."

She explained further that "everybody knew that her son had special needs and that he has anxiety and depression that he takes two types of medication for." The incident took place on December 14, 2018.

The video was posted on the Twitter account of Tallahassee civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump who is also representing George Floyd's family. Crump stated, “This is a heartbreaking example of how our educational and policing systems train children to be criminals by treating them like criminals,” Crump said in a statement. “If convicted, the child in this case would have been a convicted felon at eight years old. This little boy was failed by everyone who played a part in this horrific incident.”

According to the arrest report, the boy’s teacher said the boy was not sitting properly in his cafeteria bench seat. The teacher asked him several times to sit down out of concerns for his safety.

  

After not complying, the teacher asked him to sit next to her. He refused and told her, “Don’t put your hands on me.”

She then told the boy to walk with her. As he did, he told her, “My mom is going to beat your a--,” and then he punched her with his right hand, according to the report.

Officer Michael Malgrat wrote in his report that he was in the school’s administrative office when the teacher and the boy arrived. Malgrat wrote in his report that the boy “had his hands clenched into fists and he was postured as if he was ready to fight.”

Key West Police Chief Sean T. Brandenburg said in a statement Monday that his officers did not do anything wrong.“Based on the report, standard operating procedures were followed,” he said.  

Benjamin Crump