The lawyer for a man
claiming cops gave him brain damage when he was a teen told a jury Tuesday the
officers lied about why they stopped his client to cover up their
"savage" acts.
Jordan Miles, now 20,
is suing Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte, and David Sisak, claiming the three
Pittsburgh police officers violently beat him in January 2010 without any
cause, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Police claimed they
thought Miles had a gun, but his attorney J. Kerrington Lewis told a jury
Tuesday the police version of that night's events is a "fairy tale,"
according to the AP.
In his civil rights
case against the officers, which opened in court Tuesday, Miles claims he was
walking from his mother's house to his grandmother's around 11 p.m., when
plainclothes officers approached him, yelling, "Where's your drugs?
Where's your money?"
Miles claims he
panicked, struggled with the police, and ran away, believing the officers were
trying to rob him, according to the AP.
But the police are
telling a very different story.
According to James
Wymard, an attorney for the officers, Miles was standing in the dark with his
back to the street and ran away without answering any questions.
Wymard acknowledged
police hit the then-18-year-old but only did so after Miles elbowed one officer
in the head and kicked another in the knee, the AP reported.
Bryan Campbell, a
second defense attorney for police, claimed police initially believed Miles was
carrying a gun after they felt a hard object in the teen's pocket.
But the police later
determined the object was just a bottle of soda, the AP reported.