CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Cuyahoga County jury on Friday awarded $50 million to an East Cleveland man who filed a lawsuit that said police in that city beat him while he was in handcuffs in 2012, then locked him in a concrete storage room for four days with no food or restroom.
The award came after the second jury trial in the case of Arnold Black, after an appeals court last year overturned a previous award for $22 million.
The jury’s award — $20 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages against the city of East Cleveland — could be one of the largest awarded in a civil rights case in the state of Ohio, Justin Hawal, one of Black’s attorneys, said.
Black was “elated” with the verdict, Hawal said.
Black was also represented by attorney Robert DiCello.
The case was one of several examined during the third season of the popular Serial podcast.
Black sued the department after his 2012 arrest after Hicks and another officer stopped his truck.
The other officer testified this week that Hicks ordered him to stop Black’s truck, and he did, even though he knew there was no probable cause to do so, Hawal said. Hicks thought Black’s truck resembled the truck of a man suspected of dealing drugs, and Hicks tore through the truck but never found any illegal materials, Hawal said.
Hicks questioned Black about drug dealing activities, and punched him in the face when Black couldn’t give him any information, Hawal said.
Hicks testified at the second trial, just as he did at the first trial in 2016, that the department under then-Chief Ralph Spotts had a practice of roughing up suspects to get them to talk.