A lawsuit a Lawrence firefighter and his attorney filed against the city of Lawrence and three police officers has been dropped.
Miguel Armenta with the Lawrence Fire Department was suing officers with the Lawrence Police Department for $225,000.
Jerry Levy, Armenta’s attorney, told 41 Action News the reason they dropped the lawsuit is because the judge assigned to the case would not allow some of the evidence to be used as testimony in court.
Armenta alleges that three officers arrested him without cause and injured him in the process.
In April 2014, the officers were called to the Veteran of Foreign Wars in Lawrence on a complaint that people were fighting in the parking lot.
According to the police report, a group of people including Armenta were dropped off at the VFW by a party bus.
The fight was an apparent argument between a woman and her boyfriend who were on that bus.
When police arrived, they arrested the man for domestic assault. However the charges were dropped days later.
The arresting officer, listed as Frank McClelland, is accused of slamming the handcuffed suspect's head into the side of his police vehicle.
According to the lawsuit, that's when other party-goers became upset.
The 41 Action News investigators obtained exclusive dash camera video that shows the group tried keeping police from entering the patio area of the VFW by holding the gate closed.
Arguing can be heard on the audio as police make their way in.
Within a matter of minutes, two officers are seen bringing a woman out of the fenced-in area in handcuffs.
She was arrested for allegedly hitting one of the officers.
A couple minutes later, Armenta is also brought out in handcuffs.
The police report claims Armenta was interfering with the woman's arrest. Police said he was pulling her away from the officers.
Armenta claims in his lawsuit that he wasn't doing anything.
However, he can be heard on the dash cam audio explaining to an officer that he was pulling the woman away to help the officers get inside and also because he was trying to protect her.
Armenta claims the officers caused injuries to his face, head and arm due to using excessive force during the arrest.
However, the police report says Armenta was resisting.
Armenta was arrested for both resisting arrest and interfering with an arrest. However, the charge for interfering was dropped.
Toni Wheeler, the city's attorney, said McClelland is no longer with the department as of Tuesday. Although, she couldn't say why.
A jury trial for this case is set to begin on Sept. 12.
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Jessica McMaster can be reached at jessica.mcmaster@kshb.com.
