Image supplied, Ogden Police Department

SALT LAKE CITY — The man arrested by Ogden police after a violent encounter with them on busy Washington Boulevard plans to sue, with his attorney accusing police of going overboard in their use of force.

Salt Lake City attorney Robert Sykes, representing Shawn Sims and his mother, Marsha Quintana, decried the police response during the April 22 incident as out of proportion to Sims’ actions that day. Sims sustained facial fractures and bleeding behind one of his eyes in the encounter, according to police. Sykes said he also may have broken ribs and a broken jaw, in addition to bruising on his face and neck.

“You can’t do a forceful takedown on a minor violation,” Sykes told the Standard-Examiner in a phone interview. He didn’t spell out terms of the suit he says he’s planning on Sims’ behalf but said it would likely be filed in U.S. District Court, possibly next week.

Ogden Police Chief Eric Young held a press conference on Tuesday, saying an internal investigation into the incident found that the force used by the four officers involved in arresting Sims was justified, falling within parameters spelled out in state law and Ogden Police Department policy. The incident gained widespread attention and generated a strong public response after video of the confrontation made by a bystander was posted to social media.

While driving along Washington boulevard in the 1700 block of the street around 5:50 p.m. on April 22, four police officers in two cars came across Sims, 30, who was walking in traffic along the street, “where it was a dangerous situation,” according to Young.

Photo supplied, Ogden Police Department

The officers activated the lights on their cars, drawing the attention of Sims, who reached into his waistband, as if accessing a gun, according to Young. An officer left his vehicle, approached Sims — still in the street  — and commanded him to get on the ground, according to police body camera footage of the incident. Sims “bladed” his body, tensed up as if bracing to fight, and the officer forced him to the ground, getting backup from three other officers.

On the ground — in the southbound lanes of Washington Boulevard — Sims curled up and put his hands in front of him, inside his waistband, resisting the four officers’ efforts to handcuff him. “Stop reaching in your waistband,” an officer shouted.

At least two officers started striking Sims with their fists while a third used a Taser on him two times. “Give us your hands,” commanded an officer. Sims relented after the Taser was deployed and the officers were able to pull his hands from in front of him and cuff him. The man — who was unarmed, it turns out — seemed to cool down.

Sykes decried the police response, particularly since it stemmed from what he described as “possible jaywalking” — Sims walking in Washington Boulevard, a busy north-south arterial. Separately, Sykes is representing the parents of Jovany Mercado, shot and killed by Ogden police in a 2019 confrontation, in their federal lawsuit against the City of Ogden and the officers involved, a case that is still winding its way through court.

“There’s no statute in Utah to my knowledge that you can’t cross a street in the middle. Not even an infraction,” Sykes said. “Basically, he did nothing wrong and if he did anything wrong, it’s at most an infraction.”

Sykes maintains that even if police thought Sims had a gun, it’s not justification to use the force they did in the absence of other aggravating circumstances. “There was no legal basis to use force. There just wasn’t,” Sykes said. He went on, labeling the incident “a vicious beating for a misdemeanor.”

Sykes also noted that the probable cause affidavit in the incident filed by police makes little mention of the force used. “I think that’s because it’s wrongful,” he charged.

By contrast, Young, the Ogden police chief, said last Tuesday the police response was within police department policy and state code governing use of force during arrests when officers face resistance and aggression. He’s asked the Weber County Attorney’s Office to also investigate the police response and that probe continues.

That Sims ran from the officers and failed to heed their commands constituted resistance. His hand movements to his waistband, pointing his finger at police from under his shirt as if he had a gun and assuming a fighting posture constituted “active aggression,” Young said.

“The officer feared that Sims had a gun and intended to harm him and Sims was not following the officer’s commands,” Young said.

According to Ogden police policy, use of force “becomes necessary when an OPD officer, in the lawful performance of the officer’s duties, is met by resistance from a suspect.” “Active resistance,” according to the policy, occurs when a suspect flees an officer or stiffens his or her body to make handcuffing more difficult. “Active aggression” occurs when a suspect strikes or prepares to strike an officer, among other instances.

Utah code, also cited by Young, states that police may use “reasonable force” to make an arrest when facing resistance or a suspect who flees.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Sims was arrested in the April 22 incident on eight counts. They include an infraction for walking in Washington Boulevard, a misdemeanor count for interfering with an arresting officer, another misdemeanor count for not stopping on the command of a law enforcement officer, four felony drug possession charges and a misdemeanor count for intoxication.

Sims told medical officials treating him after the confrontation that he had taken methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, according to the affidavit. The man had not yet been formally charged as of Friday afternoon and was still being held in the Weber County Jail.

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