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Excessive force claim by grandpa against police officer in Alabama moves forward

A grandfather left paralyzed when he was leg whipped to the ground by a police officer will get his day in court.

Alabama.com reports a federal appeals court has ruled there’s enough evidence to allow a civil rights claim against officer Eric Parker and the city of Madison to move forward.

Five years ago, responding to a call of a suspicious person, Parker stopped Sureshbai Patel who responded he did not speak English. He was in town from India to visit his son and grandchild and was taking a walk alone.

Parker is accused of sweeping his leg under Patel, sending him to the ground hard into the concrete sidewalk and causing permanent injury.

“No reasonable officer could have thought that sweeping Patel’s legs out from under him and throwing him to the ground headfirst was a reasonable use of force,” the family said in a statement to WAFF. “Patel was somewhat frail and was not resisting or attempting to flee, so the law clearly forbade Parker’s forceful takedown under the circumstances.

“The Patel family is pleased with the ruling, and Mr. Patel looks forward to having his case decided by a jury.”

During his criminal trial which twice ended in hung jury, Parker claimed Patel resisted him before the takedown and during a pat down and search.

An earlier court had ruled the lawsuit should go forward, but Parker asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out the lawsuit.

In its ruling , the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said “Because neither the Court nor the video recordings can resolve these diametrically opposed accounts of what happened, the district court correctly concluded that summary judgment was not appropriate. So for the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court’s order.”

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