The parents of a second grader have filed a federal lawsuit claiming that a deputy in Laramie County, Wyoming, violated their son’s civil rights.
Edited footage of the incident shows the school resource officer tackling the 8-year-old to the floor and admitting to giving him a bloody nose during an incident at Freedom Elementary School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, last year.
The officer, Laramie County Deputy Benjamin Jacquot, further intensified the situation by threatening the boy with jail, causing the elementary school student’s fear to escalate to the point where a nurse was called to tend to him.
According to the lawsuit, in February 2022, the child, who is identified in the court record only as J.D., has been spending his lunch recess in the principal’s office in accordance with his customized Individualized Education Plan issued because of his neuro-divergent disability.
After lunch on the day of the incident, as the second grader sat at a desk in the hallway, he received a reprimand from a teacher and a principal for his remarks to a cashier in the school’s lunchroom. The deputy joined the group.
Without being asked to intervene in the conversation or to enforce disciplinary action, the deputy grabbed the child and “forcibly wrestled” him down to the floor.
The claim states Jacquot “repeatedly slammed J.D. face down onto the floor of the conference room, causing multiple bleeding facial injuries.”
Bodycam footage shows the deputy holding the boy’s arms crisscrossed behind his back with his face to the floor.
As the boy is being smushed into the floor, the video shows J.D. struggling to breathe, crying uncontrollably, and begging for the officer to stop.
“Bite me, bite me again,” the deputy says, as the boy yelps in pain, “Owww, owww, owww. I won’t.”
“No, you just bit me. So, you want to try this again?” Jacquot asks the child.
The bodycam is blurred as the officer continues berating…
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