Water Valley man was victim of “brutal attack” by law enforcement officers, attorney claims

Published 11:44 am Tuesday, July 30, 2019

The attorney for Water Valley resident David Logan says his client is the victim of police brutality, following injuries sustained during a road block in Yalobusha County, but law enforcement officials told the media a different story.

Attorney Carlos Moore, managing partner of the Cochran Law Firm-Mississippi Delta, told the EAGLE that Logan was stopped in a routine road block on July 18, during which he was instructed by officers to get out of the vehicle he was driving. When he did, Moore said, Logan’s actions were interpreted as running away and he was attacked.

“.. He stepped out of the car in the opposite direction of the officer. He said he was not running, and they assumed he was about to flee and they attacked him, both officers with the Water Valley Police Department and the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department,” Moore said. “They attacked him, threw him on concrete pavement, tased him, roughed him up real bad.”

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Moore said that Logan was “roughed up” so badly that he was completely naked on the ground before the scuffle ended. After Logan was placed in handcuffs by law enforcement officers, Moore alleged that Logan was punched and struck in the face, hit over the eye with a flashlight several times.

Logan is an African-American man, and the officers, Moore said, were all white.

“He has a fractured eye orbital, he has double vision now and he has to see a plastic surgeon. He was never booked. He was taken to the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department to be cleaned up some,” Moore said. “The blood was removed before he was taken by the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford. The staff there did everything they could for him, but he was in such bad shape that Baptist sent him by ambulance to The Med in Memphis, a level one trauma center.”

When reached for comment, a representative from the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department said “We’ve already given statements to WTVA and AP, and that’s all the statements we’re going to give right now.”

According to a statement given to the Associated Press by Yalobusha County Sheriff Lance Humphreys, the accused officers are white, but the rest of Moore’s account was under dispute.

“That’s not even close to what happened,” Humphreys told The Associated Press.

Humphreys told AP that officers from the sheriff’s department, the Water Valley Police Department and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics were checking driver’s licenses at a roadblock when they pulled over Logan. The sheriff said officers told him that Logan got out of the vehicle and ran toward them twice.

“He lowered his shoulder and tried to go through them,” Humphreys told AP.

He said the officers used a stun gun on Logan and arrested him but didn’t beat him. One officer whose knee was injured during the confrontation is now working desk duties and will have to have surgery, and another officer receive injuries to leg ligaments.

Humphreys said Logan is charged with possession of the controlled substance ecstasy, two counts of assault on an officer, one count of resisting arrest and one count of possessing drug paraphernalia. He said because Logan was hospitalized, he did not have to post bond.

None of the officers involved has been placed on leave, Humphreys told AP, and said a grand jury will consider whether to indict Logan.

When reached for comment by the EAGLE, Assistant District Attorney Steven Jubera denied to comment on the incident itself, saying instead that he spoke with WVPD and that more charges against Logan could be coming, pending a meeting between Jubera and WVPD Tuesday afternoon.

However, Moore said he planned to move forward with his case against the departments on Wednesday.

“On Wednesday, I will be submitting notices of claim to both Yalobusha County and Water Valley to notify them of the claims of Mr. Logan against them and the officers,” Moore told the EAGLE. “… I will require 90 days before we file a federal estate lawsuit against both entities and the officers responsible for this brutal attack.”

This is a developing story.

The Associated Press Contributed to this report.