CLEVELAND — A Cleveland suburb has agreed to pay a couple $450,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed after a dashcam video recorded a white officer repeatedly punching a Black man during a routine traffic stop.
Attorneys for the city of Euclid agreed to the settlement this week during talks with the attorney for Richard Hubbard and Yolimar Tirado, cleveland.com reported Wednesday.
Euclid Law Director Kelley Sweeney declined to comment. The couple’s attorney, Christopher McNeal, said he was “grateful these individuals will be compensated for he pain and suffering that they went through.”
The cellphone video of Hubbard’s August 2017 arrest and beating by officer Michael Amiott went viral. Euclid police officials initially said Hubbard resisted arrest.
The dashcam video shows Amiott opening the car door and Hubbard getting out. Within a second of Amiott ordering him to “face away,” Amiott grabs Hubbard’s arms and wrestles him to the ground as Tirado jumps out of the car and rushes over.
Amiott is seen bashing Hubbard’s head against the pavement several times and then punching him in the head more than a dozen times as Hubbard tries to defend himself.
Charges filed against Hubbard and Tirado were eventually dismissed.
Euclid police had received previous reports about Amiott’s behavior. He was fired by the city in October 2017. An arbitrator gave him his job back in October 2018.
