Des Moines police officer with history of trouble sued again

A Des Moines man says his constitutional rights were violated when a Des Moines police officer with a history of excessive force incidents attacked him in his home after he called police for help.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court Monday in Des Moines, Charles Edward Young claims officer Cody Grimes, 37, violated his constitutional rights by using excessive force. The city of Des Moines and officer Sean O'Neill are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The suit says O'Neill failed to intervene to stop Grimes from attacking Young, and accuses the city of Des Moines of "negligent or reckless conduct" in hiring and retaining Grimes, and failing to properly supervise him following several previous incidents.

"Mr. Young has the right to expect that the city of Des Moines not be deliberately indifferent to his constitutional rights by failing to train and/or adequately discipline police officers who not only possess objectively questionable and unreasonable judgment but also have a history of misconduct, illegal acts and/or violating the constitutional rights of others," the suit states.

Young also has the right to express distaste with the way police discharge their public duties without being subject to retaliation, the suit states.

Sgt. Paul Parizek, a spokesman for the police department, said the incidents referenced in the lawsuit are "in the rearview mirror" and have been reviewed and investigated by the department.

"They’re all closed on our end and both of these officers have performed exceptionally well in their current assignments," Parizek said. Neither one is the subject of any current disciplinary action, he said.

He said it would be against policy for either of the officers to speak with the media.

Young, now 63, called police in March 2016 for help with evicting two guests from his apartment. When Grimes and O'Neill told Young that they were unable to force the couple to leave and that Young would have to file a civil action against them, Young became angry and yelled at the officers to "get the (expletive) out of my house."

He became angry and slammed the door as the officers were leaving. Grimes says the door hit him. Young accused Grimes of kicking in the door and forcing him to the floor. Grimes then struck Young several times with his knees, fracturing his ribs, according to the suit.

Young's lawsuit alleges that "O'Neill stood by and watched it happen" without asking Grimes to stop or attempting to separate him from Young.

After the altercation with Grimes, Young was charged with assaulting a police officer but a jury found him not guilty in October 2016. However, District Associate Judge Gregory Brandt did find Young guilty of interference with official acts, a simple misdemeanor.

Young said at the time of the trial that he was considering filing a lawsuit.

Young's lawsuit mentions several incidents in Grimes' past.

Grimes was fired from the department in 2014 after pleading guilty to a criminal mischief charge related to a domestic dispute with a girlfriend. But the Des Moines Civil Service Commission ruled the punishment was too harsh and reinstated him.

The lawsuit alleges the city of Des Moines should have taken into account prior use of force incidents by Grimes as rationale in his firing. Instead, the city's rationale was limited to the fight with Grimes' girlfriend, leading the civil service commission to "unsurprisingly" reinstate him because it found "that firing Grimes was too severe a punishment for a single instance of misconduct," according to the suit.

"Despite their knowledge of Grimes' temper and violent tendencies, the city did not assign Grimes to desk duty or attempt to work out a settlement with Grimes but instead allowed the officer to work with the traffic unit of the department where he would be in contact with citizens and would occasionally respond to emergency calls," the suit states.

Grimes was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene of a reported shooting at the KCCI-TV news station in 2010, which turned out to be a man throwing rocks at windows of the building. Grimes mistakenly fired his weapon at a KCCI-TV photojournalist, saying he saw the figure of a man outside the building.

In 2011, he was accused of excessive force while he worked security for a wedding reception when he allegedly punched the groom five times before a guest stopped him.

Court documents say a groomsman at the wedding got into an altercation with the groom. Grimes and another officer broke up the fight. The incident resulted in a $75,000 settlement from the city.

Grimes made $78,603.20 in 2017, or $37.79 an hour, according to a Register database of Des Moines city employee salaries. O'Neill made $71,905.60 that year, or $34.57 an hour.

City attorneys didn't respond Tuesday to messages.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.