In this image taken from police body camera footage in Windsor, Va., Lieutenant Caron Nazario is assisted by an EMT after he was pepper sprayed by Windsor police during a traffic stop in Windsor, on December 20, 2020.
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In this image taken from police body camera footage in Windsor, Va., Lieutenant Caron Nazario is assisted by an EMT after he was pepper sprayed by Windsor police during a traffic stop in Windsor, on December 20, 2020.
AP
Caron Nazario, an Army lieutenant who was gunned down and pepper sprayed by Virginia police during a 2020 traffic stop, was awarded $3,685 in damages on Tuesday.
Nazario, who is Black and Latino, sued two officers from the Windsor Police Department in April 2021. The federal lawsuit alleges the officers were assaulted and racist. Nazario demanded $1 million in damages.
On Tuesday, a jury awarded Nazario $1,000 in punitive damages after finding that Officer Daniel Crocker conducted an unlawful search under state law and $2,685 in damages. harm after discovering that Officer Joseph Gutierrez, who was fired? After the incident, Nazario assaulted.
In addition, the jury found that Crocker violated Nazario’s Fourth Amendment right to refuse a search, but he did so out of malice and decided not to pay Nazario any damages for that offense. It also found no officers guilty of wrongfully imprisoning Nazario.
According to the lawsuit, Nazario was behind the wheel of his newly purchased Chevy Tahoe when he was stopped by police in Windsor, Va., in December 2020.
In a report filed on the night of the incident, Gutierrez said they were treating it as a “high-risk traffic stop” because Nazario’s car did not have a license plate, he stopped for a long time and he has an “extremely dark” window color. .
Nazario’s attorney said the car had temporary license plates taped to the rear and side windows and he was simply looking for a well-lit place to pull over.
Nazario was handcuffed and questioned while waiting for medical staff to treat his eyes after being pepper sprayed, but he was not arrested, according to his lawsuit.
The incident was captured by Nazario’s body camera and cell phone.
