CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A dispute over parking in November 2005 ended with a Cleveland police sergeant beating and arresting John Bausone inside his coffee shop in front of dozens of patrons, according to a lawsuit filed against the city.

In a recent interview, Bausone said he had parked in a 15-minute parking spot outside the cafe while he checked on his business in the Collinwood neighborhood. When he returned to his car and began to drive away, Sgt. Christopher Graham immediately pulled him over and issued him a parking citation.

Bausone got out of his car and asked Graham to explain the ticket, given that the sign permitted parking along the street.

Graham told Bausone he had parked too close to the intersection. But they tell different stories of what happened next.

In the police report, Graham wrote that he had extended his arm to escort Bausone out of the street and continue their conversation on the sidewalk, when Bausone cocked back his arm to punch him.

But Bausone said he was merely questioning the citation and had done nothing to provoke Graham when the officer ordered him to put his hands on the car.

Bausone recollected that he asked why, to which Graham responded, "You're assaulting me," before grabbing Bausone by his clothes.

Bausone was able to slip out of his shirt and run back into the coffee shop, screaming for help.

About This Series

Northeast Ohio Media Group and The Plain Dealer reviewed the details of nearly 70 lawsuits against Cleveland officers that resulted in taxpayer payouts over the past decade. The lawsuits alleged that officers used excessive force, made wrongful arrests or needlessly escalated violence during encounters with citizens. Though the city admitted no wrongdoing in settling many of the lawsuits, taken as a whole, the patterns that emerge from the cases match closely with the patterns of police behavior that were described in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. The city has declined the opportunity to discuss the individual cases in more detail. In response to questions, the city released a statement contending that it seriously considers all allegations of excessive force by officers. This, according to the city, has resulted in a steady drop in the annual number of incidents.

The officer chased Bausone, tackled him and cracked him on the back of the head with his metal flashlight. He then threw Bausone into a rack of coffee mugs, which fell to the ground and shattered, and beat him again over the head with his flashlight, until he bled.

Bausone said the officer pinned him to the floor with a knee in his chest and his hands around Bausone's neck until other officers arrived.

Graham handcuffed and arrested Bausone on charges of assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. Bausone said the handcuffs were so tight that his thumbs and index fingers were numb for years after the incident.

He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where they treated him for his head injuries and stapled shut his wounds before releasing him back to police custody.

Bausone, whose arrest came three days after the birth of his first child, argued that Graham did not read him his rights upon arresting him, and that police refused to let him contact a lawyer or his family.

He spent 24 hours in the city jail, which he said was cold, filthy and crawling with roaches.

A grand jury declined to indict him on Dec. 12, 2005.

Shortly after he was released on bond, Bausone said, he began having dizzy spells and returned to the hospital, where they discovered that he had suffered some bleeding in the brain that had formed a bruise.

The post-traumatic stress Bausone suffered was so intense that he couldn't enter his coffee shop without reliving the attack, he said.

"I felt that I was never going to to escape it," Bausone said. "Every time I walked into my business, that was the scene of the crime. I could see myself on the floor. It was always there. It never went away."

For months, he was overcome with social anxiety and could barely muster the will to leave his home. Eventually, he and his family moved out of state.

They returned about a year-and-a-half ago. Bausone now works as the executive chef at the Grovewood Tavern -- about a mile from his former coffee shop in the Collinwood neighborhood -- though he no longer lives in Cleveland.

The lawsuit condemns the city for its lack of rules and regulations governing police conduct and alleges that the city and police department urge officers to infringe upon the constitutional rights of citizens.

The city paid Bausone $7,500 in a settlement agreement in 2007.

Bausone said he became more compassionate after the incident and more sensitive to the stories of others who say that police officers needlessly assaulted them or accused them of crimes they didn't commit. He believes his case would have concluded differently, had he not been well-connected in the community or had the resources to hire a good lawyer.

Bausone said he has faith that many police officers are well-meaning, but most approach their jobs with the mentality that they are operating in a war zone -- "just there to keep order and protect themselves," rather than serve the public.

"I'm lucky that he didn't pull out his gun that night and try to shoot me when I was running," Bausone said. "That wasn't running through my mind at that moment. But in retrospect, he could have tased me, he could have shot me. Who knows what he could have done? I'm probably lucky that he just beat me."