Man claims he was beaten, defamed in lawsuits filed against West Palm police, union leader
WEST PALM BEACH — A man who was beaten unconscious by a West Palm Beach police officer in 2019 filed lawsuits in state and federal court accusing the officer of using excessive force and the local police union of lying to cover it up. He is seeking more than $125,000 in damages across both suits.
The allegations stem from an arrest on the city's north end on Nov. 1, 2019. Officer Nicholas Lordi responded to the Food Plus Grocery store to investigate reports of an intoxicated trespasser. The investigation devolved into a brawl when the suspected trespasser, 63-year-old John Monroque, ignored Lordi's commands to stand still.
Surveillance-camera video showed Lordi push Monroque's head into a parked police car, place him in a headlock and wrestle him to the ground. He proceeded to punch Monroque 11 times, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious until a civilian bystander intervened.
With a handcuffed Monroque lying unconscious and bleeding on the pavement, Lordi pressed his knee against the man's head for just under a minute. Jamesloo Charles, another officer on the scene and Lordi's co-defendant in the lawsuit, did not intervene.
Lordi arrested Monroque on charges of trespassing, resisting arrest and battery on an officer — all of which prosecutors later dropped. In his arrest report, Lordi accused Monroque of reaching for Charles' gun and taser.
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The West Palm Beach Police Department conducted an internal use-of-force investigation following the incident and cleared Lordi of all wrongdoing. When the store's surveillance-camera video began to circulate online, the department asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct its own investigation.
The FDLE found that the video contradicted Lordi's account, prompting the officer's arrest on an aggravated battery charge in February 2022. The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office dropped the charge seven months later, vouching for the lawfulness of Lordi's actions.
Lordi had already been the subject of several internal affairs investigations stemming from use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints, according to Monroque's lawyers. A Palm Beach Post investigation in 2021 found that Lordi was one of only two officers to receive three complaints in a single year.
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The city and the West Palm Beach Police Department are also named as defendants in the suit for their alleged negligence in allowing Lordi to remain on the force despite the numerous complaints against him.
“A police officer who threatens our community’s safety should not be tolerated, even by other officers. The charges against Mr. Monroque were dismissed, but this is hardly a just result,” said Fan Li, one of Monroque's attorneys. “The officer remained on duty and the victim was left uncompensated. Civil rights suits seem to be the only way to deter police abuse and see that someone answers for it.”
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's classified documents case, has been assigned to Monroque's federal lawsuit. Circuit Judge Jaimie Goodman is overseeing the lawsuit in state court.
Police union leader lied to defend officer, attorneys say
The state suit accuses the president of the local police union of defaming Monroque in an official statement to the press. Adam Myers, president of the West Palm Beach lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, called the video of the incident "doctored," and Monroque "a violent felon."
None of those claims is true, said attorneys Li and Sean Parys. Palm Beach County court records indicate that Monroque, a retired public works employee, has not been convicted of a felony.
In addition to their request for thousands of dollars in damages, Monroque and his attorneys have asked that Myers and the police union retract the statement and apologize to Monroque.
"It's a nightmare for me, but I'm trying to cope with it. I have to," Monroque said at a news conference Tuesday. "I need the system to be right. The system is too crooked."
Neither Lordi nor Myers responded to requests for comment. Mike Jachles, a spokesperson for the West Palm Beach Police Department, declined to comment on the litigation, which he said the police department has not yet been formally made aware of.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm officer's use of force brings suits against city, union leader
