Ohio Supreme Court Orders City to Pay $30M Police Brutality Judgment

The Ohio city of East Cleveland must pay a $30 million jury verdict awarded to a man who police wrongly assaulted, arrested and detained, the state’s highest court has ordered.

The victim, Arnold Black, went to court in February 2023 seeking a writ of mandamus to force the city to pay the 2019 judgment. In all, Black claims the city should pay $30,492,000, which represents the sum of $20 million awarded in compensatory damages, plus pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.

The Ohio Supreme Court on July 17 ruled that Black has a legal right to enforcement of the civil judgment and that the city has a legal duty to pay Black in satisfaction of the civil judgment. The court found a writ of mandamus from the court is appropriate because Black has no other way to enforce the judgment against the city. The court ordered the city to satisfy the judgment or if necessary, take the steps for appropriating the funds necessary to satisfy the judgment.

The city had argued that a writ of mandamus forcing it to pay the judgment should be denied because it claimed the final amount of what is owed remained unclear, citing a provision imposing a $250,000 cap on certain damages.

But the high court noted that the city offered no evidence of its claim that the final amount is unclear and that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict.

In April 2012, Black was arrested during a traffic stop by East Cleveland police officers, even though the officers admitted that they had “no legitimate reason for stopping and detaining Black” since Black had not committed a crime. During the stop, Detective Randy Hicks questioned Black about who sells drugs in East Cleveland. When Black replied that he did not know, Detective Hicks “became violent and repeatedly struck Black’s face and head.’ Hicks called another officer to transport Black to the East Cleveland jail where Black was placed in “a storage room that the police officers referred to as a ‘holding cell.” According to court documents, the room was infested with cockroaches and contained a wooden bench, some storage lockers, and cleaning supplies, with no bed or toilet. Black was kept in the storage room for four days.

Black’s former fiancee testified that when Black was finally released, his head was swollen like a “helmet” and he acted fearful.

Black sued Chief Ralph Spotts, Hicks, and the city for his injuries. In August 2019, a jury returned a verdict in Black’s favor, finding that Hicks’s conduct was a “proximate cause” of Black’s injuries. The jury found that Hicks used excessive force in violation of Black’s constitutional rights, committed a battery against Black, and falsely arrested and/or imprisoned him. Hicks was also found liable as a supervisor because the jury determined that the deprivation of Black’s constitutional rights “took place at [Hicks’s] direction or with [his] knowledge, acquiescence, or consent.”

As to Chief Spotts, the jury found him liable for directing or knowing about, acquiescing to, or consenting to the deprivation of Black’s constitutional rights. The jury also found that the city’s policy makers promoted policies and practices that deprived Black of his constitutional rights and that was a proximate cause of his injuries.

The city and Spotts appealed to the Eighth District Court of Appeals, which affirmed the trial court’s judgment. Thereafter, the Ohio Supreme Court declined jurisdiction over the city and Spotts’s appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the city’s petition for a writ of certiorari.