An 18-year-old Dulac man at the center of a controversial arrest last spring that went viral on social media, which led to the firing of two deputies, has filed a lawsuit against the Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office, records show.
Christopher Verdin Jr. was arrested May 13 after his mother reported he was on crystal methamphetamine, had hit a dog in the head with a wrench and shot at the dog, authorities said. Verdin’s girlfriend later disputed those claims.
Verdin’s charges are still pending, authorities said.
After responding to the incident at 7077 Grand Caillou Road, the two deputies, Joseph Cehan III and Charles Cook Jr., were recorded by a bystander in a cellphone video shouting obscenities and threatening to fight Verdin, who was handcuffed in the back of a patrol car.
After the video went viral, the deputies were fired May 15 for “conduct unbecoming of a police officer” following an internal affairs investigation, the Sheriff’s Office said.
In addition, an unidentified rookie deputy was given a letter of reprimand for not reporting the incident, Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said.
“These officers weren’t trained that way,” Larpenter said. “They should have known better not to lower themselves to the standard of a criminal. Ninety percent of the criminals arrested in Terrebonne Parish are on drugs or alcohol, and they’re going to say and do stupid things. You can’t let individuals like that get under your skin. If you do, you need to find another profession.”
According to the lawsuit filed on Wednesday by New Orleans attorneys Bradley Egenberg and Ben Berman, Verdin is suing Cehan, Cook, Deputy Cody Guilbeaux and the Sheriff’s Office for violating his constitutional rights.
“Plaintiff complained about the defendants and their treatment of him,” the lawsuit says. “Individual officers dragged him from their patrol car, after he was fully secured. Individual officers assaulted and battered the plaintiff, using excessive force. The amount of force used against plaintiff was utterly unnecessary based on the totality of the circumstances. Individual officers acted in bad faith in assaulting and battering the plaintiff.”
The lawsuit alleges the Sheriff’s Office “condoned” the deputies’ actions and “failed to properly train, discipline or supervise individual police officers or their supervisors such that they violated the plaintiff’s well-established constitutional rights.”
As a result of the arrest, Verdin suffered economic hardship, loss of companionship, fear, anxiety, humiliation, shame, pain and suffering and emotional distress, the lawsuit says.
Attorney Bill Dodd, who represents the Sheriff's Office, said he wasn’t aware of any physical injuries suffered by Verdin.
“There was no excuse for Cehan screaming and hollering like he did and that’s why the sheriff let him go,” Dodd said Friday. “He fired the other deputy for standing there and not doing anything. As far as any injuries the guy received, I’m not aware of any. In viewing the video of the incident I don’t see anything the officer did that would cause him any physical injuries. It’s certainly not a broken arm, busted lip or broken teeth. Everybody’s got a right to file a lawsuit. Some of them have merit and some don’t. We’ll treat it like all lawsuits. We’ll treat it as a serious matter and defend it the way we defend everything.”
Cehan had been with the Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office since June 2014 and Cook started with the department as a correctional officer in July 2013 before joining the patrol division in August 2014, the Sheriff’s Office said.
With an exception of a few minor infractions committed by Cook, both of the former deputies had clean work records prior to the incident, Larpenter said.
--Staff Writer Dan Copp can be reached at 857-2202 or at dan.copp@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter@DanVCopp.