Key West police tried to handcuff an 8-year-old. A judge just ruled on his mom’s lawsuit
Key West police officers did not violate an 8-year-old boy’s civil rights when they tried to handcuff him at his elementary school after he was accused of punching a teacher in 2018, a federal judge has ruled.
The boy’s mother, Bianca Digennaro, sued the Key West police officers and the city in August 2020 after her attorney, Benjamin Crump, posted a video of the boy’s arrest on his Twitter account. The lawsuit accused officers of using excessive force, not intervening in his arrest and not considering his disabilities during the incident.
“A mental health crisis at a school, and they feel it is appropriate to arrest, charge and have him become a convicted felon at eight years old,” Crump said after the lawsuit was filed last year.
But U.S. District Court Chief Judge K. Michael Moore sided with police officers Michael Malgrat, Kenneth Waite and Fred Sims along with the city.
Moore cited the video, which shows the boy crying while an officer places him against a filing cabinet inside the school office. An officer frisks him and tries to put metal handcuffs on his wrists.
“The court cannot overlook the fact that — as depicted in the arrest video— Waite merely attempted to handcuff [the boy] for less than thirty seconds, causing no physical pain or injury,” Moore wrote in an 18-page order filed Monday.
“Waite then abandoned the effort and escorted [the boy] unrestrained,” Moore wrote. The officers explained to [him] why they were arresting him, speaking to him calmly and explaining the severity of his actions.”
Moore wrote that while the boy was visibly upset during the arrest, “the attempted handcuffing can hardly stand to serve as the sole or primary basis for any emotional injury he suffered as a result of the events that transpired that day.”
Even painful handcuffing does not, by itself, amount to excessive force, Moore wrote.
Moore ordered the clerk of court to close the case.
Crump, of Tallahassee, and Devon M. Jacob, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, did not immediately return messages for comment on whether they will appeal the decision.
“Judge Moore ruled that handcuffing the minor was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment and that’s why he disposed of the case,” said attorney Scott Alexander, of Fort Lauderdale, who represented the Key West defendants with his law partner Michael Burke.
The Constitution’s Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures.
“I’m very pleased and gratified with the court’s very thoughtful and thorough decision,” Burke said. “He gave a very thorough description of this.”
Case against Keys school dropped after cops tried to cuff 8-year-old. But it’s not over
In March, the judge dismissed the lawsuit’s claims against three Monroe County School District employees.
The incident happened Dec. 14, 2018, at Gerald Adams Elementary School on Stock Island. Police said that teacher Ashley Henriquez approached the boy in the school’s cafeteria because he was not sitting properly in his seat while the children watched a video.
After he wouldn’t comply, she tried to have him sit with her and that’s when the boy punched her in the chest, Henriquez told police.
“My mom is going to beat your a--,” the boy told her before he punched her, police said.
The boy’s father, Herschell Major II, was called and came to the school, where he told Malgrat he wanted his son placed in handcuffs, according to Moore’s order.
But the officer who tried to put the boy in handcuffs, Waite, “was not privy to and did not have the benefit of the discussions between Malgrat and [Major] regarding teaching a lesson at any time prior to or during his attempted handcuffing of [the boy],” Moore wrote.
Digennaro’s attorneys said Major never told Malgrat to go ahead and handcuff the boy, Moore noted in his order. Officers ended up walking the boy to the police car without restraints.
He was booked at a juvenile detention facility in Key West on a felony battery charge
The Monroe County State Attorney’s Office chose not to prosecute the case about nine months after the arrest.
Mother of arrested Key West boy sues city, police officers, teacher and school district
Video emerges of Key West police trying to handcuff an 8-year-old boy
