Smith Lawsuit
Smith Lawsuit
DAEVIONNE SMITH,
Defendants.
(1)
Plaintiff, DAEVIONNE SMITH, comes now through counsel, and brings this
action for violations of due process, reckless, wanton use of a firearm, assault,
battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and gross negligence against the
Defendants Officer Gregory Bauer and the City of Grand Rapids Police
(2)
INTRODUCTION
This is a Civil Action asserting claims under the Federal Constitution and
Michigan law alleging violations of constitutional due process and the State’s
disparate treatment and gross negligence causing assault, battery, and severe
M.C.L. § 750.81, and M.C.L. § 752. 863a. Plaintiff requests a jury trial and seeks
fees and cost pursuant to and M.C.L.A. § 600.2954 and 42 U.S.C. §1983.
(3)
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This court has jurisdiction over all causes of action set forth in this complaint
pursuant to 28 U.S.C § 139, as the plaintiff and the Defendants reside in the
County of Kent, in the State of Michigan. The occurrence of the significant and
relevant incidents giving rise to this complaint took place in Grand Rapids, MI,
(4)
THE PARTIES
Plaintiff is a citizen of the State of Michigan and resides in the City of Grand
(5)
Defendant Officer Gregory Bauer is a citizen of the State of Michigan with the
competency and capacity to sue and be sued. At the time of the alleged extreme
conduct, the Defendant was an employee and resident in Grand Rapids, MI (Kent
County) and currently retains domicile and a residence in Western Michigan. The
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(6)
On December 9th of 2021, the Plaintiff, Mr. Daevionne Smith and two friends
were enjoying a Saturday night out on the town in Grand Rapids, MI. At
approximately 12:00 am in the night, the Plaintiff and friends stopped by his
elderly father’s home to check on him. Finding his father asleep, Mr. Smith used
the restroom and proceeded back towards his car, a white Audi A8 Sedan.
(7)
Also on the night of December 9th, 2021, simultaneously as the Plaintiff was
innocently journeying through the city, Grand Rapids Police Department officers
were looking for a stolen vehicle, a white Audi A7 coup and mistakenly believed
they found it when the Plaintiff’s car was spotted at his residence near Cass
Avenue and Sycamore St SE. Failing to check the license plate or model of the car,
GRPD officers set up a perimeter around the Plaintiff’s father’s home and waited
(8)
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When Mr. Smith came out of his father’s house, he could sense the presence of
someone waiting on the side of the structure. Fearing the shadowy figure was a
blast rang out and a bullet flew past the Mr. Smith’s head, close enough for him to
feel and hear the force of the small piece of steel, which caused him to immediately
throw himself to the ground in fear of his life. As a result of the impact from
sudden fall and the shocking near death experience, the Plaintiff is suffering loss of
mobility and chronic pain in his arm and shoulder, as well as from post traumatic
stress disorder, sleep deprivation, mental anguish, and emotional pain and
suffering.
(9)
officers, and watching public prosecutors fail to hold the officer accountable for
reckless and malicious intent, the Plaintiff, while enduring post traumatic stress,
concluded that the GRPD officers’ poor training and pattern of disregarding human
rights would result in the death of another minority citizen. Just days after hiring
an attorney to pursue this claim, another minority motorist, Patrick Lyola, was
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killed, being shot in the back of the head by a Grand Rapids Police Officer. Prior
to his own near death shooting in the back of head, Mr. Smith’s cousin, Breonna
Taylor was killed by police officers as well. The Plaintiff is also suffering from
(10)
As a result of the Defendants’ lack of public safety policies, use of force protocols,
firearm safety procedures, and or their failure to apply them in the incident at issue,
the GRPD grossly violated the standard of care owed to the public when they drew
endangering the lives of an unarmed innocent citizens, the public at large, and
(11)
Defendants, The City of Grand Rapids and its Police Department, have an
extensive record in the Western Michigan jurisdiction and community for abusive,
violent, and reckless policing against minorities. In 2019 videos circulated through
the community of GRPD officers punching a “Black” citizen some thirty times,
using excessive force to achieve compliance. The same year, in 2019, GRPD
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officers held two Latino teens at gunpoint while jaywalking. In March of 2017,
GRPD officers pulled guns on an African American preteen and a group of teenage
boys walking home after playing basketball, posing no threat to armed men. In
December of 2017 GRPD officers handcuffed an eleven year old African American
girl, her mother, and aunt at gunpoint when they posed no physical threat to the
officers.
(12)
According to the Defendant’s April 2017 “Traffic Stop Data Analysis” study
over abundance of police contact with officers who have rarely been held
accountable for their abuses. The Lamberth study also revealed that despite the
chances of finding contraband being the same across all races, Black motorists
were twice as likely to be searched for contraband after a stop by the Grand Rapids
Police Department. The State of Michigan Department of Civil Rights has over
sixty open complaints against the Defendants. The City of Grand Rapids has long
been aware of the open and obvious discriminatory practices by its’ Police
(13)
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For several years, the City of Grand Rapids, as a municipal corporation, has been
aware and complacent in the human rights violations of its police department. For
several years, the City of Grand Rapids has possessed foreknowledge of its
public health crisis and her administrations’ steps towards addressing it within state
government. Despite the Defendants’ foreknowledge of its constant abuses and the
State’s public address to the issue, the City of Grand Rapids failed to take steps to
protect its minority citizens from their violent police force. By failing to act on
committed by their employees against their citizens, the Defendants created the
(14)
(15)
As a licensed and trained police officers and lethal arms holders acting as public
servants, the Defendants owed the Plaintiff and the community at large, a duty of
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care and they breached that duty of care when he violated state laws and acted with
wanton disregard for the rights and safety of the Plaintiff, thereby causing him
life. The Grand Rapids Police Department and the City of Grand Rapids were
aware of these types of tactics being used in incidents involving African Americans
and Latinos and failed to properly train, reprimand, and or manage the Grand
Rapids Police Department Officers. The City of Grand Rapids and its Police
(16)
A gross negligence claim must establish (1) that the Defendant “owed a duty of
care to the Plaintiff”, (2) that the Defendant “breached that duty”, and (3) that “the
113 S.W.3d 85, 88 (Ky.2003) (citing Mullins v. Commonwealth Life Ins. Co., 839
S.W.2d 245 (Ky.1992)). The Plaintiff “must demonstrate “an element either of
malice or willfulness or such an utter and wanton disregard of the rights of others
as from which it may be assumed that the act was malicious or willful.” Phelps v.
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Louisville Water Co., 103 S.W .3d 46, 51 (Ky.2003). McIntosh v. Data RX Mgmt.,
Inc., No. 5:13-CV-140-TBR, 2014 WL 774609, at *5 (W.D. Ky. Feb. 25, 2014).
(17)
The Defendants, Officer Bauer, the Grand Rapids Police Department, and the City
of Grand Rapids, owed the Plaintiff a duty of care as public servants, and they
breached that duty when they knowingly, willfully, and purposefully failed to
perform the legal standard of care, i.e, attempting to verify rather or not the stolen
vehicle being searched for has been located prior to drawing lethal weapons and
The Municipal Defendants breached their duty of care when they failed to properly
(18)
The Defendants knowingly, purposefully, and with wanton disregard for the
Plaintiffs’ rights and safety, breached the duty of care owed to Mr. Daevionne
Smith when Gregory Bauer and other officers set up a perimeter around the
Plaintiff and drew weapons before verifying that the suspect was armed or that his
private vehicle was actually stolen, and then proceeding to pursue him and
discharging a deadly weapon in the direction of his head, causing him post
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traumatic stress and bodily injury. The Defendants breached their duty of care
when they failed to properly establish and or properly execute protocols or policies
(19)
(20)
The Defendants committed assault and battery when they intentionally pursued the
Plaintiff and shot a deadly weapon at the back of his head, causing him to collide
with the ground with excessive impact while in fear of his life, thereby harming the
(21)
People v. Meissner, 294 Mich. App. 438, 812 N.W.2d 37 (2011). “Battery” is an
another. People v. Meissner, 294 Mich. App. 438, 812 N.W.2d 37 (2011).
(22)
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“The offense of assault requires proof that the defendant made either an attempt to
of receiving an immediate battery.” People v. Henry (Aft. Rem.), 305 Mich. App.
connected with the person. People v. Henry (Aft. Rem.), 305 Mich. App. 127, 854
(23)
the person of another, or of something closely connected with the person; it is not
necessary that the touching cause an injury. Lakin v. Rund, 318 Mich. App. 127,
896 N.W.2d 76 (2016). “Common-law battery does not require force capable of
causing physical pain or injury.” Stokeling v. United States, 139 S. Ct. 544, 202 L.
(24)
impairment affects a person’s general ability to lead his or her normal life where
the impairment "influence[s] some of the person’s power or skill, i.e., the person’s
capacity to lead a normal life." Patrick v. Turkelson, 919 N.W.2d 280(Mem) (Mich.
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2018). The Plaintiff suffered an arm injury, an offensive touching, and post
his head, forever impairing his ability to lead a “normal life.” Patrick v. Turkelson,
(25)
Defendants, the City of Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Police Department, and
Officer Gregory Bauer, committed assault and battery when they intentionally
drew weapons, pursued, and discharged a deadly weapon at the head of the
Plaintiff, causing him to fall to the ground in physical and emotional anguish.
Furthermore, the Defendants caused the offensive and harmful touching of the
Plaintiff when they wrongfully detained him as a result of their failure to establish
of race.
(26)
DAMAGES
(27)
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others and such threshold applies even when the underlying standard of liability for
461 U.S. 30, 103 S. Ct. 1625, 75 L. Ed. 2d 632 (1983). The calculation of future
damages for types of future damages described in subsection (1)(b) shall be based
on the costs and losses during the period of time the plaintiff will sustain those
(28)
RELIEF REQUESTED
(29)
bodily functions, loss of enjoyment of life, and post traumatic stress disorder
(30)
Court enter a Judgment in her favor against Defendants for the following relief:
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Plaintiff to compensate him for the mental and physical anguish, loss of
attorney fees;
III. That equitable relief in the form of an order mandating cultural sensitivity
training, conducted by firms provided by the Plaintiff, for all Grand Rapids
public health crisis of racism in the City of Grand Rapids government and
public institutions.
IV. Any other compensatory, exemplary, or equitable relief that this Honorable
Dated: April 27, 2022 By: /s/ John R. Beason III, Esq.
The J.R. Beason Firm PLLC.
D.C. Bar No.: 1721583
IBA Bar No.: 1522438
853 McAlister St.
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
(269) 213-1426
[email protected]
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DAEVIONNE SMITH,
Defendants.
JURY DEMAND
To the extent that a jury trial is allowed with regard to any of the issues as set
forth above, Plaintiff mercifully demands such.
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