Four police officers at a city jail strained to escort a man they were holding on charges back to his cell after he was discharged from a nearby hospital. The city had clearly outlined policies about how to restrain prisoners to prevent catastrophic injury. However, that evening, the officers failed to implement them. The prisoner, Tony, had been cooperating with officers, but he was writhing involuntarily from an overdose of methamphetamine and ecstasy. The hospital had given him the anti-anxiety medication lorazepam. Nevertheless, despite his ongoing agitation, Tony had been released back into police custody. During the jostling, Tony struck his head twice as the officers transferred him from the car to his cell — where they struggled to remove his handcuffs. They forced Tony to the ground, and he struck his head a third time on the concrete wall as he tumbled. One of the officers left to retrieve a waist restraint. In direct violation of police policy, the three remaining officers rolled Tony onto his stomach, and pressed down on his legs, shoulders, and back.

With the weight of three grown men bearing down on him, Tony repeatedly shouted he could not breathe, but the officers kept replying, “Yes, you can.” The fourth officer eventually returned and attempted to thread the waist restraint around Tony’s body. Tony displayed increasing and obvious signs of distress and disorientation due to difficulty breathing. Still, against protocol, the trio of cops continued to forcibly restrain him. Tony told the officers that he was passing out, his final words calling out to his mother. The officers continued tightening the waist restraint as Tony went limp. His breathing turned agonal, and the untrained officers failed to recognize that it was a sign of sudden cardiac arrest. They sat his unconscious body up against the jail cell wall and searched for a pulse; when they found none, they began chest rubs. As the minutes ticked past, the officers tried a defibrillator and chest compressions but ignored breath resuscitation instructions. Medics arrived and were unable to resuscitate Tony. An ambulance took him back to the hospital, where Tony was declared dead.

The police department announced that Tony had died from a medical emergency while held in his cell. Tony’s family attempted to learn what happened but was rebuffed by the department. Thus, they reached out to James Harrington, president and CEO of Fieger Law, who specialized in taking civil rights, police brutality, and personal injury cases to trial. They asked James to investigate what exactly had happened to their beloved brother and son that night.

James obtained the police and autopsy reports and discovered the department had lied about the cause of death to the press. The death certificate referenced positional asphyxia and stated the cause of death as homicide. This led James to dig into the video footage, where he discovered the four officers forcibly holding Tony down for a prolonged period. He reviewed the police procedural manuals and found that the officers’ conduct violated multiple protocols.

To complicate matters, the defense doubled down on Tony’s drug use as the main contributor to his death. James held a mock trial to ascertain how detrimental the drug use and history of heart issues would be to a jury’s verdict. The mock jurors confirmed the two factors would be major headwinds. Meanwhile, the defense hired experts with years of experience testifying in similar matters. They also took a hard posture and refused to budge from their low initial offer.

James knew the medical facts proved the officers were at fault, but he needed visual demonstratives to illustrate the complex biomechanical concepts to jurors. He retained a team of experts, including a police procedures expert and a medical doctor who was involved in the George Floyd case. The experts worked with DK Global, whom James had tasked with creating a series of animations. James wanted the visuals to accompany the experts’ testimonies so the jurors would have a crystal-clear understanding of the timeline and medical concepts.

The 40-minute DK Global animation opened with a list of the six factors that led to Tony’s death. Next, a timeline was sequentially woven together from the police and security footage to recreate the entire night. Captions drew attention to key events and were displayed alongside excerpts from depositions, medical records, and police handbooks. During critical medical moments, 3D animations revealed new angles of the scene, along with interior views of Tony’s compromised cardiovascular system. The animation concluded with highlighted sections from the police manual and summaries of the plaintiff’s claims. 

James disclosed the DK Global video during settlement discussions. Within two weeks, the defense’s posture dramatically changed. They abandoned their hard stance and adopted a far more serious tone in their efforts to settle the case. The case was ultimately settled the morning of jury selection. The settlement amount was confidential but extremely favorable to Tony’s estate, and was ten times more than initial offers. While the money could never bring Tony back, it allowed the family to finally achieve a sense of justice and accountability.

James Harrington is the president and CEO of Fieger Law, where he represents clients in personal injury, civil rights, police brutality, medical malpractice, and other cases. He has obtained numerous multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements, including verdicts of $17.5 million and $15.5 million in vehicle accident cases, $9.5 million in a general negligence case, and $3.5 million in a federal civil rights case. He has won multiple awards, including regular annual Super Lawyers recognition.