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Man sues Lincoln Park claiming excessive force

Posted at 5:52 PM, May 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-25 19:15:31-04

Emanuel Palmer sat across a table from us - flanked by his lawyers.  

He's a broken man he says, distrusting of authority and suffering from PTSD after what happened on the night of May 25, 2014.

"It was a nightmare," he says.

According to court records, Lincoln Park police responded to a 911 call from a reported drug informant claiming a dealer had just pulled a gun on him.

Going off the tip and a vague suspect description, Mr. Palmer appears to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sitting in a hotel parking lot, he says officers came up from behind - failed to identify themselves - and shone a flashlight through his driver-side window, with holding their drawn guns. They demanded he get out.

Palmer thought he was being carjacked. He says he was surfing Facebook on his phone at the time.

"I was on Facebook, then on the ground bleeding half to death."

That happened he says, after he rolled his window down. He claims officers tased him through the window, dragged him out and beat him.

They demanded to know where the gun was. No gun was ever found.

He was taken to jail, where he said he sat for nearly four days without medical attention.

The 7 Investigators have obtained a copy of Palmer's medical records that show once released from jail he was treated for eye trauma, and a closed head injury.

"This is a gross violation of the civil rights of our client," said attorney Cyril Hall.

Palmer's attorneys say their client was charged with assaulting, resisting and obstructing two police officers. No charges were ever filed in regards to the reason why officers approached Palmer in the first place.

A judge would later dismiss all charges saying Palmer was illegally detained.

We reached out to the Lincoln Park police chief for their side of the story. They didn't respond.

In cross checking this story, we learned Palmer is also currently suing the Ecorse Police Department for excessive force under similar circumstances.

However, when we questioned his attorney, we was told the evidence in this case proves his story is legitimate and the other case should have no bearing on this one.