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Two police officers must pay a Milwaukee man more than half a million dollars for violating his civil rights by searching him without a legal reason and wrongfully arresting him, a federal jury ruled Thursday.

In issuing the decision, jurors determined that Milwaukee police officers Michael Gasser and Keith Garland Jr. did not have a reason to stop and search Leo Hardy, 40, outside his mother's home at the Mayfair Court housing complex in March 2012.

With the verdict, jurors were essentially saying that Milwaukee police, like their counterparts in New York, had used unconstitutional "stop and frisk" tactics. The officers did not have "reasonable suspicion" — the lowest level of proof required for officers to search someone — that Hardy had committed a crime or posed a threat, the jury found.

"The jury believed Leo Hardy, and they sent a message that no police officer can stop a man and put their hands on him simply because he is black in Milwaukee," said Russell Ainsworth, Hardy's lead attorney.

The jury found that both Gasser's and Garland's actions were either "malicious" or involved "reckless disregard" for Hardy's civil rights.

The verdict, handed down after three days of testimony and about five hours of deliberations, was the first in potentially dozens of civil rights trials alleging illegal strip and cavity searches by Milwaukee police. More than 60 people have sued the city and the Police Department in connection with such searches.

In Hardy's case, jurors did not find that the officers conducted improper searches by putting their hands inside Hardy's underwear and pulling down his pants on the street, as he contended. Rather, jurors concluded that officers did not have a valid legal reason to search Hardy at all or to arrest him for resisting and obstructing officers.

A third officer, Michael Valuch Jr. was not found liable by the jury.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller did not ask Assistant City Attorney Sue Lappen in court if the city planned to appeal. She left the courthouse without comment and did not return a telephone call late Thursday. The officers also left the courthouse without comment.

Jurors awarded Hardy a total of $506,000. Of that, $6,000 was to compensate him for being illegally searched and wrongly arrested. The remainder was in punitive damages, which are designed to punish improper behavior and to deter similar actions by Milwaukee police in the future. The damages were assessed against the two officers, but since they were on duty at the time, the city is responsible for paying.

Hardy said he was not surprised the jury found in his favor, because he was telling the truth. However, he said he feared the verdict could lead to further harassment by Milwaukee police.

"It's more frightening for me now than it was before court," he said after the verdict was announced. "I feel like I'm going to be more stereotyped now because I put myself on the front line for the black men of this community, I stood up to the plate, I took the time, and I ran for justice."

On Monday, the first day of the trial, Hardy testified he was visiting his mother, as he did every day, and had committed no crime when Gasser began to search him.

"I asked, 'What did I do?'" Hardy testified. "He said, 'Shut up and cooperate.'"

"How did you feel during that search?" Ainsworth asked Hardy on the stand.

"I kind of hate to say it this way, but humiliated. Degraded. Assaulted. Cruel and unusual punishment," Hardy answered.

Hardy, who was on probation for retail theft, initially cooperated with the officers, even when Gasser reached down in his underwear and touched his buttocks, Hardy said.

Hardy said Gasser then groped his penis.

"I pushed his hand away and I just ran ... to just separate myself from this officer as far away as I could," Hardy testified. "I was scared. I was violated. I didn't know what was going on."

The officers contended they had been tipped off by a security officer at a nearby housing complex that Hardy hung out with a man they believed was trespassing. Gasser said he smelled marijuana as he approached. Garland said Hardy was reaching toward his waistband, which caused the officer to fear he might have a gun.

Gasser testified that as he conducted a pat-down search for possible weapons, he felt a softball-sized package of suspected drugs in the front of Hardy's pants and asked what it was. Instead of answering, Hardy ran, Gasser said.

Hardy spent more than a month in jail.

Stadtmueller instructed jurors Thursday morning that if they believed Gasser's testimony about smelling marijuana on Hardy, then the officers had legal justification to search him.

There was no mention of marijuana in any of the police reports, and Garland said he had not smelled any. Hardy denied he had marijuana and none was found.

Four officers were convicted of crimes in connection with illegal strip and cavity searches in district stations and on the streets of District 5 from 2008 to 2012. They were forced to resign as a result. One of them, Michael Vagnini, pleaded guilty to four felonies and four misdemeanors and is serving a 26-month prison term. The others were convicted of misdemeanors.

Gasser received immunity from prosecution in one of the cases against Vagnini in exchange for providing information to investigators — a fact Stadtmueller allowed into evidence in Hardy's case.

In a statement emailed by his spokesman, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn focused on the jury's finding that the officers in the Hardy case had not conducted an illegal strip search or cavity search.

"Each of these cases is reviewed on its own merits and unique facts. Today the jury found in favor of the officers in this case by determining that the searches were lawful. I understand the City Attorney's Office may review the jury's finding relative to an unlawful stop in this case and may consider appealing that portion of the jury's decision," the statement said in its entirety.

Ainsworth, of the firm of Loevy and Loevy of Chicago, said he and his local counsel, Robin Shellow, had only begun to fight.

"We hope that the city will stop wasting taxpayers' money by litigating these cases when they obviously know what the officers did was wrong," Ainsworth said. "We are prepared to take each of these cases to trial, and we expect to have the same result from every jury that we have."