Attorneys have used investigations by the board to buttress their clients’ claims of mistreatment by the police; a lawyer for Tylon Outlaw, a high school football coach who was beaten by a Hartford policemen outside a bar in 2004, cited complaints filed with the civilian board when he tried to show the officer had a history of using excessive force. A jury awarded Outlaw $454,000 in damages; the question of who should pay — the city or the officer himself — is still being decided.