Nearly a year after an off-duty cop was captured on video kneeling on the neck of a 12-year-old girl at a Wisconsin middle school, her family filed a lawsuit alleging the officer violated her constitutional rights.
The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against officer Shawn Guetschow, the city of Kenosha and the Kenosha Unified School District Monday in U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin.
The suit was filed by the father of the victim, Jerrel Perez, and the student, identified only as Jane Doe because she is a minor.
In the March 4, 2022, incident at Lincoln Middle School, Guetschow, a Kenosha police officer who also worked as a security guard at the school, had broken up a fight between Jane Doe and another girl in her sixth grade class in the cafeteria, the lawsuit said.
According to school surveillance footage of the incident, Guetschow fell on the ground with Jane Doe after separating the girls. He then pushed her head onto the floor of the cafeteria and put his knee on her neck for about half a minute before handcuffing her.
The lawsuit alleged Guetschow used excessive force in arresting Doe, alleged the city of Kenosha and the Kenosha Unified School District did not provide him with any training regarding the security guard job, and thus failed to prevent the incident.
NBC News reached out to the city of Kenosha and the Kenosha Police Department.
Attorney Sam Hall, who is representing the Kenosha Unified School District and Officer Shawn Guetschow said in a statement that the district will “vigorously defend” itself and Guetschow in the civil litigation.
Hall said that the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office notified the Kenosha County District Attorney last week that it will not pursue any charges against Guetschow.
Unlawful chokehold
The suit said that Jane Doe, who had moved to Kenosha in 2021 with her father and siblings, was “acting in self-defense” and “upon provocation of threat of physical harm,” in getting…
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