The City of Orlando settled a federal lawsuit Friday with a man who accused a police officer of putting his hand down the back of the man’s pants and sexually assaulting him while looking for drugs. The settlement amount was not available.
City spokeswoman Cassandra Lafser said the decision to settle was a financial one and does not reflect the city’s position in the case. The officer was not charged with a crime. The case originally went to trial in January, but the verdict ended in a hung jury. A new trial was scheduled to begin Monday.
Clinton Fair, 29, was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by Orlando police Officer Jonathan Mills in an August 2014 traffic stop near Orange Blossom Trail and Colonial Drive, according to the lawsuit.
Mills and another officer were searching for a suspect who had a felony warrant and ran from police. The car in which Fair was riding matched the description, but officers had the wrong car, according to records. The suspect was not in the vehicle.
Mills asked Fair to step out of the vehicle and the officer began searching him without consent – a violation of his rights, the lawsuit alleges. Fair was handcuffed and that’s when Mills allegedly used excessive force, and “non-consensual, harmful … physical contact” against Fair while looking for drugs, the lawsuit said.
Mills denied the allegation, laughing it off in an interview with Orlando police’s internal affairs unit. He said he only patted Fair down, checked his pockets and tugged on his shorts.
Internal affairs could not prove exactly what happened so Mills was not punished by the department.
Reached by phone on Friday afternoon, he referred comment to the department’s public affairs unit.
The lawsuit calls the allegations “shocking to the conscience.”
“Mills’ acts … were entirely unproductive, unfruitful and offensive,” the lawsuit said.
Fair, of Apopka, said in the lawsuit the incident caused bodily injury and a “loss of dignity.”
The driver was not issued any traffic citations.
Fair’s lawyer did not return a call for comment on Friday.
Mills is also accused in another ongoing federal lawsuit which also alleges excessive force during a traffic stop.
Louis Fedrick was pulled over in October 2013 in the 800 block of West Washington Street for driving on a suspended license, according to records.
Fedrick, 61, said he asked why he was being pulled over and put his hands up in a non-threatening manner, but then Mills used a Taser on him.
Mills wrote in an arrest affidavit that Fedrick was trying to get away.
The first tase did not work but the second one did, and Fedrick fell down, the lawsuit said.
“Officer Mills then slammed Mr. Fedrick to the pavement and while arresting/handcuffing Mr. Fedrick, twisted and yanked on Mr Fedrick’s arms in a forceful manner,” the lawsuit said. “[Fedrick] was an unarmed 57-year-old man, who was not acting aggressively or violently, and did not pose a threat to Officer Mills.”
Fedrick spent a day in the hospital and has had three surgeries to repair damage to his left rotator cuff and right elbow, the lawsuit said.
The charges against him of resisting an officer were dismissed. Fedrick’s attorney declined comment until the case was resolved.
The two men in the lawsuits were not the only people to accuse Mills of wrongdoing.
Records show citizens filed more than 15 complaints against Mills from 2012 to 2015. He was not disciplined in any of the cases, the records show.
He did receive an oral reprimand for making disparaging comments to bystanders during a traffic stop of a woman last March in the Parramore neighborhood.
The Orlando police Citizens Review Board reviewed the case on Wednesday and called the comments racist.
Mills was shown on his body-cam video telling onlookers that they didn’t know how to buy a house and his house was “bigger than these two buildings combined.” He also told a woman “That hair-do is sad. You’ve got to get your hair done, girl.”
Mills was reassigned from the department’s TAC team, which specializes in arresting violent offenders, to patrol in December. Reassignments are a “management decision based on the departments needs,” said an Orlando police spokeswoman, who did not comment any further.
Orlando police Chief John Mina did not return an email for comment.
dharris@orlandosentinel.com, 407-420-5471 or @DavidHarrisOS
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