Murder defendant who punched out his lawyer sues responding officers for alleged excessive force
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A New Jersey murder defendant says in a lawsuit that courtroom sheriff’s officers responded with excessive force after he hit his lawyer in the face.
Randy Washington, 36, filed the suit against the Mercer County Sheriff’s office this month, NJ.com reports in a story noted by the Associated Press.
Jurors were outside the courtroom at the time of the June incident. Washington says he hit his lawyer and then waited for officers to handcuff him. But officers tackled him nonetheless, slamming him to the ground and breaking his wrist, the suit says.
Washington also claims his jailers didn’t send him to the hospital until a week after the injury, and then delayed treatment after an X-ray revealed the injury.
The lawyer who was hit in the face, Jessica Lyons, was Washington’s second attorney, according to a prior story by NJ.com. She replaced Tom Belsky after Washington allegedly threatened his first lawyer.
Washington was on trial for the October 2014 murder of Silas Johnson. After being convicted, he was sentenced to 70 years in prison on Sept. 22, and faces charges in the killing of a second man in July 2014.
