Justice For Le’Keian Woods: Handcuffed Black Driver Who Was Brutally Beaten By Jacksonville Cops To Sue

A Black man who was handcuffed before being brutally beaten last year by police officers in Florida is planning to announce a federal lawsuit in the case that made national headlines after video of the incident went viral.

In the conspicuous absence of criminal charges, Le’Keian Woods is expected to be joined by his legal team on Thursday to formally announce the lawsuit that stems from his violent arrest by officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) more than a year ago.

Woods’ mugshot notably showed his face was bloodied and his eyes were so swollen they couldn’t open.

What happened to Le’Keian Woods?

On Sept. 29, 2023, Jacksonville officers detained and arrested Woods, then 24, after a traffic stop.

Video footage recorded by a bystander shows at least three officers pinning down Woods with his chest to the ground and hands behind his back. Next, one of the officers lifted Woods’ head off the ground and slammed it into the side of the curb. When they finally picked him up to allow him to sit on the side of the curb, Woods’ face was visibly beaten and completely covered in blood.

According to the police narrative, the JSO Gang Unit was conducting undercover surveillance in the San Jose area when they came across Woods. The truck that Woods was the passenger in was pulled over by police who claimed there was suspicion of a drug deal but admitted they used the seat belt violation as justification for the stop. JSO says the vehicle kept driving “as if the occupants were looking for a place to run.”

After the truck eventually stopped, police claim Woods jumped out of the front passenger seat and ran through an apartment complex. When officers caught Woods, police claim they tased him twice before he fell face-first onto the pavement. JSO then claims Woods started to “violently resist” a detective’s attempts to arrest him.

The police report states that one detective hit Woods five times in the face and once in the ribs, while another kneed him four times in the ribs and face. One of the detectives involved in the incident claims there were “unintentional knee strikes to Le’Keian’s face during the struggle.”

Woods — who suffered a ruptured kidney, migraines and was getting dizzy when he walked — was charged with armed traffic of methamphetamine, armed traffic of cocaine, armed possession of a controlled substance, resisting an officer with violence and violation of probation.

Woods’ family speaks out

Woods’ family has maintained that he was pulled over for a seat belt violation before he was brutally beaten. They also said there wasn’t a warrant for Woods’ arrest but that he was on probation.

Woods’ cousin DeQuan told News4JAX that he was more concerned about how Woods was treated after he was handcuffed and detained. 

“My thing is I don’t want to speak on nothing but the fact of after,” said DeQuan. If they arrested him and he did do anything wrong and they’re doing it…once they put him in handcuffs. My thing is after you detain a man, where is it OK that once he’s detained you’re beating him like a dog?”

Sheriff defends brutal cops

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters claimed Woods’ arrest was justified and said the public’s rush to judgment caused people to reach “faulty and dangerous conclusions.”

Waters said during a press conference that a portion of the bystander’s video was “intentionally altered” to drive a wedge between the community and the police. Waters also released body camera footage that he claimed shows his officers were justified in their violent arrest of Woods. 

“There was force used by arresting officers and yes, that force is ugly,” Waters also said. “But the reality is that all force, all violence is ugly. But just because force is ugly does not mean it is unlawful or contrary to (agency) policy.” He said all the officers remain on the street “where they belong.”

What Waters did not say was how one of the officers involved in the brutality — JSO officer Josue Garriga — against Woods also shot and killed Jamee Johnson, another young, Black driver, in 2019. In that case, Johnson was pulled over for an alleged seatbelt violation, just like Woods was. Notably, Garriga in July pleaded guilty to enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity.

Other officers involved in Woods’ brutal beating have had numerous complaints filed against them, including one who was suspended for beating a woman outside of a Jacksonville bar in 2019.

Lawyers say Woods was illegally pulled over

Civil rights attorney Harry Daniels, who represents Woods, said at the time that his client looked “like he just went 12 rounds with a professional boxer.”

Daniels says officers had no legal reason to stop Woods and that he will petition the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Woods’ beating.

“It’s unfortunate that the sheriff believes the beating of an unarmed man is justified,” Daniels told AP. “It is obvious that he is complicit and an enabler of clear misconduct by his officers. It is not surprising that (the sheriff’s office) didn’t find any misconduct because they investigate themselves.”

Daniels and Woods’ legal team questioned why JSO had to brutally beat Woods before taking him into custody, calling the department an “orchard full of bad apples.”

Later, civil rights attorney John Burris, who represented Rodney King, Tupac Shakur and the family of Oscar Grant, joined Woods’ legal team.

Burris compared the beatings of Woods and Rodney King, saying both were striking and deeply troubling. 

“More than 30 years later here we are watching another video of another unarmed Black man needlessly and viciously beaten by out of control officers while the people in charge try to excuse their actions,” Burris said at the time. “We didn’t believe their spin in 1991 and we don’t believe it now. This video and pictures of Le’Keian Woods’ swollen face speak for themselves.”

DOJ shrugs at JSO police brutality

Daniels, who also called out the JSO Gang Unit’s history of stopping people “on pretexts to assault and terrorize them,” called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open an investigation into the JSO.

However, those calls were met with apparent ambivalence as the DOJ expressed uncertainty around whether the incident merited criminal charges. The Civil Rights Division of the DOJ said it would look at Woods’ arrest and take appropriate action if there was a prosecutable federal criminal civil rights offense.

More than a year later, it would appear that the DOJ is not planning on taking any action.

This is America.

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