February 19, 2016
A Philadelphia man has filed a lawsuit against Burlington City and its police department, alleging that excessive police force led to a broken arm.
The lawsuit was filed Feb. 8 in Camden, New Jersey, federal court.
According to the Courier-Post, the incident occurred in February 2014 when Burlington City police were called to a local Wawa over a dispute involving a passenger in the car of Steven S. Kahn, then 60 years old, and a store clerk.
The scene that then transpired involved two Burlington City officers and Kahn and was captured on dash-cam video, which the Courier-Post has obtained.
The lawsuit alleges that Burlington City Patrolman Jeremy Bright may have believed that he saw Kahn dispose of the remnants of a marijuana cigarette into a Wawa coffee cup, the Courier-Post reports.
“Kahn can be heard screaming as officers pull at his arms, apparently fracturing his left arm, before cuffing his hands behind his back,” the Courier-Post reports. “[The suit] says Bright repeatedly ordered Kahn to 'stop resisting,' while the Philadelphia man shouted, 'I’m not doing nothing.'"
Kahn alleges he "never resisted the officers."
The suit goes on to claim that Kahn was “ordered to put his right arm behind his back, but could not do so because it was pinned beneath his stomach by the officers' weight,” adding “Bright 'suddenly and with great force' bent Kahn’s left arm, breaking it.”
Kahn’s attorney told the Courier-Post his client was then taken to a police station, instead of a hospital.
Kahn's attorney said that Kahn entered a conditional plea in municipal court to charges arising from the arrest, and that his record has since been expunged.
Read the full Courier-Post report here.
