For the second time in a month, the Henderson City Council has voted to settle a civil rights lawsuit against the city's police department.
The $158,500 settlement to Adam Greene was approved unanimously as part of the consent agenda passage. Another $99,000, the maximum amount allowed without approval from City Council was approved by the city attorney to be paid to Greene's wife, Brittany.
Greene was stopped Oct. 29, 2010, by Nevada Highway Patrol and Henderson Police officers for erratic driving at Lake Mead Boulevard and Boulder Highway.
Video from a camera mounted in a Henderson patrol car shows a highway patrol officer with a gun pointed at Greene, shouting contradictory orders, "Do not move, driver! Hands up! Do not move!"
Greene is then pulled from his vehicle and subdued by five officers. While Greene is on the ground, a sixth officer approaches and delivers four forceful kicks to Greene's upper body, while an officer repeatedly orders, "Stop resisting, mother------!"
Greene, a diabetic, was suffering from a medical episode that caused the erratic driving.
"We have some influence in his pocket," an officer says, referring to what would later be positively identified as a vial of insulin. "He's semiconscious."
Seconds later, an officer says, "OK, let's get medical out here; he's a diabetic. He's probably in shock."
Later, officers are heard laughing and joking about the incident.
"He's a small guy," one officer says.
"I could have taken him myself," another replies about the more than 6-foot-tall Greene.
"It was difficult to watch," said Greene on Wednesday about the video, which can be viewed online at hendersonpress.com. "I don't remember the incident at all. My memory's completely blank, which is fortunate for me. But it's a little surreal and strange to watch."
Greene suffered broken ribs, a black eye and multiple abrasions from the incident, which he said took about two months to heal fully.
The Henderson Police Department has implemented procedural changes, due in part to this incident.
"I don't harbor any ill will toward the officers at all," said Greene. "I respect the police. I think they do a really difficult job, especially in this city.
"My father was a highway patrolman. The officers need to be able to distinguish between a medical emergency and all the other stuff they have to deal with." The Henderson Police Department has not released the names of the officers involved in the incident, and sources say only one received disciplinary action.
The Greenes said no city or Police Department representative has apologized for the incident.
"What happened to Mr. Greene was wrong," said Mayor Andy Hafen. "We regret the pain and suffering that he and his family have endured."
Hafen expressed a need for the Department to "reduce the risk of it ever happening again."
The Greene's attorney, Jeffrey R. Hall, filed the civil action for deprivation of rights with the Nevada District Court's Las Vegas office in September. The Henderson Police Department and Nevada Highway Patrol were listed as defendants.
The state of Nevada also paid Greene $35,000 as part of the settlement. "We feel really good about the settlement," said Greene. "We believe it's fair, and we're happy to be done with it and move on with our lives."
"We mediated this very quickly, after we filed the complaint," said Todd Moody, another of Greene's attorneys, when asked about a possible pattern of abusive activity within the Henderson Police Department.
"We did not have the opportunity for any discovery at all," he said. "Obviously, the city of Henderson would like to keep that private. I think that helped in settling the case."
In January, the Council voted to settle a suit filed by Adam Fradella for $225,000. During a 2008 New Year's Eve arrest, Fradella sustained injuries to his face and torso, while outside a private home where a party was under way.
