Mentally ill man ‘needed help, not beatings,’ says attorney announcing lawsuit against LBPD

A mentally ill man whom a Long Beach police officer repeatedly hit with a baton in February is suing the city, alleging officers wrongly arrested and beat him after bystanders misunderstood his erratic behavior and cries for help as aggression. Eugene Martindale III was desperately seeking assistance during a mental health episode when a security guard Tasered him and police arrived to violently arrest him, according to Martindale’s attorneys, who provided a copy of the civil rights lawsuit they plan to file in federal court today. The security guard and the Long Beach City attorney’s office both declined to comment. Police said they were preparing a statement. “Martindale needed help, not beatings,” Attorneys Rodney Diggs said during a news conference announcing the lawsuit Tuesday morning. Diggs and Martindale’s other attorneys declined to say exactly what illness the 25-year-old has, but they said his episodes involve panic and anxiety attacks and sometimes delusions. “Martindale is African American and has a mental disability which at times causes him to seek assistance from bystanders to call his father to pick him up,” according to the lawsuit, which notes Martindale […]

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