COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A Coldwater Township man who got into an angry confrontation with police and firefighters in June 2017 has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Coldwater and three Coldwater Police officers involved in the incident at the parking lot at the Old Mill Race apartments.
According to Pacer Monitor on line court records, the suit which demands a jury trial was filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court by 29-year-old Allen Worley. It listed the City of Coldwater, along with officers Michael Clemons, Lewis Eastmead and Jan Taube-Quispe as defendants.
Worley was sentenced several weeks after the incident in Branch County District Court. He was given a one year jail sentence after entering no contest pleas to three counts of attempted resisting and obstructing as well as 93 days for operating while impaired.
Coldwater Fire Department first responders were dispatched when Worley was reported to be passed out in a parked car.
Coldwater City Police and the Michigan State Police were called when he was revived and got angry with the firefighters.
City Police had to use a taser and pepper spray on Worley. The wind blew the pepper spray into Eastmead’s face and his eyes at one point and he had to be treated by LifeCare Ambulance crews.
Worley is being represented by Southfield Attorney Solomon Radner who is also representing Tiffany McNeill in her civil rights lawsuit against the City of Coldwater and the Coldwater Police Department. The McNeill suit was filed in December 2017 after Eastmead was caught on videotape throwing McNeill to the ground at the Branch County Jail about a month after the incident with Worley. She was handcuffed at the time. McNeill says she was knocked unconscious and bloodied by the officer’s actions.
The outcome of her lawsuit is still pending. Eastmead left the department a few weeks after McNeill’s suit was filed.
