A solider is suing Virginia police over a violent stop. Here's what to know about the trial.
A federal trial began Monday in a civil lawsuit over a 2020 traffic stop in which an Afro Latino Army lieutenant was pepper sprayed and handcuffed by Virginia police.
Body camera video shows Windsor police officer Daniel Crocker and Joe Gutierrez, who was an officer at the time but has since been fired over the case, pepper sprayed and pointed their weapons at 2nd Lt. Caron Nazario as he held his hands up in his vehicle.
The stop sparked nationwide backlash and Virginia's attorney general later sued Windsor, a small town about 70 miles southeast of Richmond, alleging the town's police engaged in discriminatory policing against Black Americans.
In April 2021, Nazario filed the civil lawsuit against the officers for $1 million in compensatory damages. In August, a special prosecutor called the video of the stop "very disturbing and frankly unsettling," but determined Gutierrez should not be criminally charged.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-solider-is-suing-virginia-police-over-a-violent-stop-here-s-what-to-know-about-the-trial/ar-AA1693w6
