North Carolina Jury Awards $8.3M in Excessive Force Suit

A North Carolina jury has ordered three law enforcement officials to pay $8.3 million for violating a man’s civil rights when they beat and shot him while he was driving on his own property six years ago.

WRAL-TV reports the award is believed to be the largest excessive force verdict in a civil rights case in the state’s history.

Michael Morgan said three Wake County sheriff’s deputies improperly beat him and shot him during a traffic stop while he was unloading brush on an empty field he owned. Police said Morgan dragged a sheriff’s deputy along the side of his pickup truck before he was shot.

Morgan spent four months in jail on charges of assaulting a police officer. He was acquitted over questions about the veracity of the deputies’ accounts.