Ballston Spa

A wrongful death suit filed Friday alleges Saratoga Springs police officers targeted an African-American man for arrest, beat him so severely that he later died from his injuries, and engaged in a cover-up engineered by their bosses to hide the excessive force.

In an amended complaint, attorneys for Patty Jackson accuse Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen, police Chief Gregory Veitch and six police officers of depriving or violating the civil rights of her son, Darryl Mount Jr., during at an attempt to arrest him in Saratoga Springs during the early morning of Aug. 31, 2013.

Filed by attorney Brian Breedlove, the suit alleges some of the officers practiced "racial profiling" and brutalized the young man from Malta in the presence of the others, who failed to intervene. It accuses the city of being deliberately indifferent to the rights of people such as Mount, and failing to properly train and or supervise employees in determining probable cause for arrests. It also charges that Veitch and Mathiesen "ratified and approved" of the officers' misconduct and disseminated a false narrative that Mount's injuries were caused by falling about 20 feet from scaffolding.

"Gregory Veitch and Chris Mathiesen were acutely aware that the injuries sustained could not have been sustained in such a fall," the suit states. It alleges the two deliberately failed to secure a proper forensic examination to prevent evidence from coming to light.

"We had a forensic medical examiner review all the medical records," Breedlove's partner, Carrie Noll, said Friday. Facial wounds found on Mount were inconsistent with a fall, she said.

Filed in state Supreme Court, the suit names the city, Mathiesen, Veitch, Sgt. Aaron Benware, Investigator James Bell and Officers Frederick Warfield, John Bateholts, Tyler McIntosh and Adam French as defendants. The officers responded to or investigated the incident.

Police officials have said officers pursued Mount for arrest that night after seeing him assault his girlfriend on Caroline Street. They say Mount, who was 21 at the time, fled into an alley on Broadway, climbed scaffolding, slipped and fell. They have said the pursuing officers found Mount unresponsive on the pavement.

Mount's injuries kept him hospitalized until he died May 13, 2014. A death certificate says the cause of death was "respiratory failure due to pneumonia due to immobilization due to brain injuries due to blunt force trauma."

On Friday, John Aspland, an attorney for the city, categorically denied the accusations outlined in the amended suit.

"There was no cover-up and the police weren't responsible for Mr. Mount's death," Aspland said. "There's nothing to indicate or even justify an allegation that they are responsible for his death, or there was a cover-up. It's profoundly sad what happened to Mr. Mount, but it was not a result of anything the police did or failed to do."

Provided copies of the complaint, neither Mathiesen nor Veitch commented. Mathiesen has said accusations police were responsible for Mount's injuries were unsubstantiated and groundless, and used by some to further personal agendas.

Mathiesen resisted calls for an outside agency to investigate what happened to Mount, and he declined to act on a New York Civil Liberties Union request to form a police review board. An internal inquiry into the Mount case cleared officers of wrongdoing. In October 2014, police department leaders released a video that showed a view of Caroline Street on the morning of the altercation. It shows a man wearing a red T-shirt, whom police identified as Mount, emerging from the south side of Caroline Street, possibly making contact with another person, then bolting south on Broadway out of sight of the camera. The tape shows officers running after Mount, but not what happened in the alley.

Mathiesen is seeking re-election this fall. The Democrat faces a primary challenge from attorney Sarah Burger. His opponents released separate statements Friday. Richard Wirth, the Republican candidate, called on Mathiesen to order an independent probe, saying the public's trust in the department had eroded. Burger said Mathiesen should quit if a cover-up or racial profiling is proved.

The police chase of Mount was the subject of protests for months.

The complaint filed by Jackson's attorneys accuses police officers of trying to arrest Mount without a warrant or probable cause, and says he died as a result of severe blunt force trauma he suffered at the hands of police. It seeks unspecified damages.

dyusko@timesunion.com • 518-454-5353 • @DAYusko