MAPLEWOOD, NJ – The township and police department have settled a federal lawsuit lodged on behalf of a 16-year-old African American boy, whose mother claims he was beaten and pepper-sprayed by police while walking home from a Fourth of July fireworks celebration in 2016.

Cynthia McDougall filed the lawsuit on behalf of her son, Jason McDougall, in connection with the July 5, 2016 incident. The mother claims police officers from the Maplewood, Irvington and South Orange Police Departments racially discriminated against, retaliated against and used excessive force against her son.

U.S. District Court Judge Kevin McNulty approved the settlement on Feb. 20, according to his court order, which states that the parties have 60 days to request the action be reopened. The order does not disclose the amount of the settlement.

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The lawsuit claims officers’ actions, which were caught on video, caused Jason McDougall physical and emotion injuries.The complaint refers to McDougall by only his initials since is was 16 at the time the incident occurred.

According to the complaint filed in the lawsuit, police kicked, punched and pepper-sprayed McDougall, temporarily blinding him. The officers laughed and taunted McDougall as he walked down Elmwood Avenue, according to the complaint.

The officers’ actions, according to the complaint, were caught on their police vehicle’s camera. He was then arrested and beaten by police until he lost consciousness, the complaint alleges.

The events started when the teen started to walk down Valley Street on toward his home in Maplewood after a fireworks display.

The lawsuit claims then Maplewood Police Chief Robert Cimino told his officers to “send black children, who were leaving the fireworks display, in mass out of the town of Maplewood and into neighboring Irvington.”





Police diverted McDougall and other black children to Parker Avenue and to Elmwood Avenue, according to the complaint, but when McDougall left the sidewalk to go toward Boyden Avenue, an officer spoke to him using a racial epithet.

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McDougall continued to walk on Elmwood Avenue, according to the complaint, and told the officer “that he was going to report him and that what he was doing in preventing him from home was illegal,” the complaint said.

According to the complaint, there was a commotion in the crowd toward the intersection of Elmwood and Boyden Avenues. McDougall started to walk toward the intersection to see what was happening and so did the officer he was speaking with.

When McDougall walked away from the crowd and toward Elmwood Avenue on the sidewalk, according to the complaint, a police officer hit the teen “forcefully in the chest causing him to fall backward,” and was then surrounded by “at least eight police officers” and he was “kicked repeatedly by the police officers and sprayed with a chemical capsicum type spray directly in the eyes, nose, mouth and ears.”

Officers then told McDougall to continue walking up Elmwood Avenue and when he asked for water to flush the pepper spray, which was blinding his vision, officers refused to give it to him, according to the complaint.

READ THE FULL COMPLAINT HERE

A friend helped him walk up Elmwood Avenue and he yelled from the burning in his eyes, according to the complaint. Then he was followed up Elmwood Avenue by about 20 police officers and a police vehicle, which is when the taunting happened, and the video was taken.

McDougall spit out the capsicum from the pepper spray as he walked, and then an officer yelled another racial slur, according to the complaint.

Police then kicked McDougall in the head, handcuffed him and slammed him onto the hood of a police car where he eventually lost consciousness and was taken to another police car, according to the complaint.

McDougall has since graduated from Columbia High School. Cimino, who was chief at the time, has since retired with a payout from the township.

“As a result of the misconduct described above, J.M. experienced humiliation, emotional distress, physical pain and suffering, psychological trauma, loss of assets and other incurred expenses,” the complaint stated.

Email Editor Lindsey Kelleher at lkelleher@tapinto.net; Follow her on Twitter: @LindseyKelleher