Police Misconduct/Prisoner Rights
Introduction
Experience
Philosophy
Employment Discrimination
Introduction
Experience
Philosophy
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Experience
Dr. Belcher has counseled many persons with grievances against local police officers in the State
of Maryland or the District of Columbia for the purpose of assessing whether these grievances
warrant serving a notice of claim with the appropriate governmental agency to protect the
complainant’s right to sue and, if this notice is ignored (as almost all notices are) following up by
filing a lawsuit against the responsible defendants.
Dr. Belcher filed his first police misconduct case more than ten years ago, when he brought suit
in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, Maryland, against four white police officers
then employed by the Prince George’s County Police Department on behalf of the father of a 15
year-old 130-pound emotionally disturbed black youth who was badly beaten by the officers in
retaliation for the youth’s escape from Cheltenham Youth Facility, also known as Boy’s Village
of Maryland, a juvenile facility located in Cheltenham, Maryland. After a difficult trial in which
each officer testified that he had done nothing wrong, a jury awarded Dr. Belcher’s client over
$62,000.00 in damages.
Since that first trial, Dr. Belcher has represented a number of other plaintiffs in police
misconduct lawsuits, usually in federal court. While every police misconduct plaintiff
represented by Dr. Belcher in a lawsuit filed in federal or state court has either reached a
settlement acceptable to the plaintiff or obtained a judgment in his or her favor, prospective
claimants should note that in two separate cases, juries awarded a plaintiff represented by Dr.
Belcher only a “nominal” monetary award–meaning one dollar–because the jury did not feel that
the plaintiff had suffered any serious injuries. Based upon this experience, Dr. Belcher does not
recommend filing police misconduct lawsuits unless the plaintiff has suffered a relatively serious
physical injury or major economic loss.
Dr. Belcher has also counseled many prisoners who have complaints about the condition of their
confinement in state and federal facilities, and he has represented several prisoners in federal
lawsuits filed against the District of Columbia and correctional officers employed by the District
of Columbia. In 2006, for example, Dr. Belcher settled a prisoner rights case referred to him by
the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of two plaintiffs who
alleged that they were subjected to systematic retaliation from Lorton prison guards because the
plaintiffs were filing internal grievances against the guards.
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