Providence to Pay $210k in Mendonca Case: White Cop Free & Won't Pay a Penny After Beating Handcuffed Latino Man into Coma with a Flashlight

From [HERE] The city of Providence, Rhode Island has agreed to pay $210,000 to settle a police brutality lawsuit filed by a Latino man who was beaten in 2009 while in handcuffs and left in a coma.

WPRI-TV reported that the City Council Committee on Claims and Pending Suits met briefly before approving the payout to Luis Mendonca. It was publicized Tuesday.

The beating by white Providence police Det. Robert DeCarlo was caught on video. The lawsuit singles out DeCarlo for allegedly violating Mendonca’s civil rights and assault and battery. DeCarlo claims he used necessary forced to subdue Mendonca, because he was resisting arrest. He said he did not know he was handcuffed.

The grainy, black-and-white video shows a gang of white police officers struggling with Mendonca in a parking lot off Benefit Street on the city’s East Side while he is lying on the ground near a parked car.

It shows the officers dragging Mendonca from under the car and into the center of the parking lot, after he has apparently been handcuffed. The video then shows DeCarlo entering the fray, kicking Mendonca and following up with a number of blows to the victim’s head with a flashlight.

During his criminal trial, prosecutors argued that DeCarlo, 46, attacked Luis Mendonca deliberately and out of anger, knocking the 22-year-old unconscious with a flashlight blow to the head. Mendonca had run from police after he was stopped on the night of Oct. 20, 2009, on suspicion of theft and trespassing at the Rhode Island School of Design. He struggled with officers when they caught up to him in a nearby parking lot but was ultimately detained.

The video, which has no sound, ends with a visibly limp Mendonca being dragged by police officers up a flight of stairs leading to Benefit Street.

Mendonca was knocked unconscious and suffered a severe gash in his head that was closed with eight staples. He was in a coma for two days following the incident. 

After the attack by police his attorney said, "he's suffering from a lot of headaches. He's throwing up. His vision is still not there and he's having a difficult time seeing," said attorney Alberto Aponte Cordona. "A guy is beaten by police, brought into the hospital, his family can't get in to see him for several days. The police put him under a pseudo name. It's not that difficult to add one and one. [MORE] and [MORE] 

DeCarlo was convicted in 2011 of assault but that was later overturned by a white judge. He ultimately pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and resigned.

Two public safety officers at the Rhode Island School of Design were also named in the suit. RISD will pay $45,000.