RENO, Nev. (AP) - A rural Nevada fire captain is getting some compensation for a night in the country that turned into a nightmare.
Lyon County agreed this week to pay Ryan Brandon $150,000 to settle his lawsuit accusing three sheriff’s deputies of using excessive force when they pummeled and arrested him without cause or warning at a country music festival.
The unprovoked attack occurred after deputies responded to a report of a brawl at the “Night in the Country” festival on July 25, 2019, in Yerington about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Reno, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Reno in March.
Brandon, 33, of Virginia City, is the full-time acting fire captain in neighboring Storey County.
He was sitting in a lawn chair outside his trailer with his fiancee and a box of Cheez-Its on his lap when “suddenly all hell broke loose” as the deputies hurtled into him from behind, sending the couple crashing to the ground, his lawyer Terri Keyeser-Cooper said.
Brandon had no idea who his attackers were or why they were punching him, the lawsuit said. He struggled to free himself, but did as he was told and made no attempt to hit or strike at the deputies, it said.
“The last thing he remembers is being face down in the dirt, near his chair, with multiple people on top of his back, someone with his knee in his back, someone banging his head into the ground and another punching him in his ear,” Keyser-Cooper said.
Brandon eventually was handcuffed, charged with resisting arrest and booked into the county jail, where he remained for about five hours before posting bail.
The charge was dismissed and the case file sealed as part of the settlement.
Keyser-Cooper, a longtime Reno civil attorney, said that when Brandon first approached her about defending him she had a hard time understanding how he could be attacked and beaten for no reason.
“In 35 years of civil rights practice, I have never had such a case,” she told The Associated Press. “There was no reason to gain control of him because he was a completely innocent person.”
Like Brandon, at least eight witnesses at adjoining campsites who saw the attack said they did not hear the deputies announce they were law enforcement, the lawsuit said.
“All the people around were horrified,” Keyser-Cooper said. She said they started shouting, “you’ve got the wrong guy … he is with us, he is innocent, he was just sitting in a chair.”
But the officers told them to “shut the (expletive) up” or they would be arrested, she said.
Keyser-Cooper said the deputies were believed to be chasing a white male and a Hispanic male who may have been involved in a fight that broke out in the street adjacent to his trailer. Brandon and all the deputies are white.
Brandon said one deputy admitted making a mistake and apologized to him after he was handcuffed. But when Brandon expressed anger about the unprovoked beating and called one a name with profanity, a deputy said, “Take him in,” according to the lawsuit.
He accused the deputies of false arrest, reckless provocation of violent provocation and retaliation in violation of his First and Fourth Amendment rights.
Lyon County District Attorney Steve Rye and county manager Jeff Page said in emails to AP this week they had no formal comment.
Keyser-Cooper said Brandon was glad to settle the case but “very much upset that nothing happened to the officers.”
“They beat him badly and suffered no discipline,” she said.
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