A Burlington man is dropping his federal lawsuit accusing the city’s police department of excessive force, with no out of court settlement.
The lawsuit was initially filed in January 2020 on the behalf of Mohamed Luhizo, an African American Burlington resident. Luhizo alleged in the suit that while he was being detained after an altercation in 2018, Burlington police officer Derek Hodges dropped his knee into Luhizo’s face, injuring his jaw.
The suit listed four police officers — Hodges, Jason Bellavance, Cory Campbell and Bryan Kirby — and then-Police Chief Brandon del Pozo as defendants.
It was not clear what prompted Luhizo to drop the suit. Evan Chadwick, Luhizo’s lawyer, declined to comment on the motion to dismiss the suit.
Chadwick and Pietro Lynn, Burlington’s lawyer, both signed the motion to dismiss Friday.
Lynn said Luzio’s lawyer approached the city and asked them to agree to withdraw the claims.
“It’s unusual, this is not the way cases are usually resolved,” Lynn said.
Lynn said there was no out of court settlement of any kind with the case.
“We have not paid any money,” Lynn said. “The plaintiff asked to withdraw the claim and we agreed and that is the motion that is in front of the court.”
Lynn said the city recognizes that both in Burlington and across the country, there is heightened attention to how police conduct themselves and how they interact with the public, and particularly people of color.
“The City of Burlington is aware of that and is monitoring this case and others to make sure that they are handled in a way, sensitive to those issues, and that they behave in a way that honors the Black Lives Matter movement,” he said.
At his daily media briefing, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said he was not surprised to hear that the case was dropped against the city.
“It never seemed to me or the city team that there was any wrongdoing on the part of the city,” Weinberger said. “In that incident, there was a kind of chaotic late-night scene where officers were responding to a pretty unacceptable situation, and it wasn’t clear that officers had done anything wrong.”
Chadwick is also representing Albin, Charlie, and Jeremie Meli, all brothers, who have filed suits alleging excessive use of force by the Burlington Police Department, which the department has denied.
