Man sues Keller cops after he was arrested with pepper spray in what he says is retaliation

A Keller man filed a lawsuit against two police officers who pushed him to the ground and prayed for him after he filmed his son’s arrest after a traffic stop.

Marco Puente, 39, is suing Blake Shimanek and Ankit Tomer in federal court, claiming that Keller officers used excessive force and retaliated against him.

The suit also says that Dillon Puente had a racial profile during the traffic stop and that Shimanek arrested him and took him to prison for making a “wide right turn” just to look for narcotics in his car, which he didn’t find.

The video from the Puente prison body camera went viral on social media, and an online petition demanding that Shimanek be fired and face criminal charges drew more than 12,000 signatures.

A lawyer representing the two policemen in the civil case declined to comment on Thursday.

Keller’s mayor, Armin Mizani, said in a written statement on Wednesday night that police command staff reviewed the situation just hours after his arrest in August and that the charges against Puente were dropped.

Police chief Brad Fortune did not respond to an email asking for comment on Thursday, but Puente said the chief had apologized to him two days after his arrest.

“It’s a shame that they have something to apologize for,” said Scott Palmer, one of the lawyers who is representing Puente. “Nobody is saying that they didn’t take the right approach after the fact, but the fact is that it should never have happened.”

The mayor said the Keller police had initiated an internal affairs investigation into the case, which concluded that Shimanek arrested “an individual for a crime that was not committed”.

This prompted the police chief to downgrade Shimanek from sergeant to an officer in September. He can apply again for the sergeant post after a year.

The city released images of Shimanek’s body and panel cameras on Wednesday, as well as a copy of the internal affairs report and conclusions that focus on his conduct during the arrests. The lawyers representing Puente shared additional footage from the body camera and the camera of two other officers, including Tomer, with The Dallas Morning News.

“Keller PD is a state-recognized and nationally accredited department, and these designations come with comprehensive protocols and policies,” said Mizani in his statement. “Police meetings like these, however, remind us that, as a city and as a department, we must continually work to strengthen our standards.”

Another Puente lawyer, James Roberts, said the aim of the lawsuit is to increase police officers’ accountability.

“It’s about making sure that when a police officer gets off the line and does something wrong, he is held accountable, and other officers see this and realize that they can’t do something wrong, or they will be held responsible,” Roberts said.

Prison images showed that after Shimanek stopped Marco Puente’s son, Dillon Puente, he walked to his car, telling him to lower the window. While Dillon Puente was standing, he kept the window open about a quarter of the way.

So Dillon Puente, who was 22 at the time, complied when Shimanek ordered him to get out of the car.

“Why are you acting so suspicious?” Shimanek asked as he handcuffed him.

“Because I’m scared,” replied Dillon Puente.

Marco Puente then stopped in his truck and his son told him that the policeman was upset after he closed the window while he was being stopped.

Shimanek told Marco Puente that he was about to be arrested for blocking the road and told him to park elsewhere. After Marco Puente parked elsewhere and returned to where the policeman was interrogating his son, he took out his cell phone to record the incident.

When the second policeman, Tomer, arrived, Shimanek told him to keep an eye on Marco Puente, who was on a sidewalk across the street from Shimanek.

“Watch me what? Watch me standing here? ” he asked.

“Yes,” said Shimanek. “Better yet, arrest him,” he said to Tomer.

The cops pinned him to the grass and Shimanek ordered Tomer to apply it with pepper spray.

“I’m not doing anything,” said Marco Puente as Tomer sprayed him twice. “Man, what the hell, man? What it is? “

Marco Puente repeatedly told the police that his eyes were on fire and asked for a towel as they took him to a car and put him in the back seat.

“I’m asking for medical assistance,” said Marco Puente in the video. “I can’t even breathe, bro.”

Tomer told Puente that he would get medical help in prison. When they arrived at the prison, the police waited several minutes before helping Puente.

From the moment he received pepper spray until another prison officer helped him to rinse his eyes, more than 15 minutes passed.

“He was begging for help all the time,” said Palmer.

Puente said that during the arrest, one of the officers took off his sunglasses to spray him. This tore his nostril, leaving him with a scar.

He was born and raised in Keller and still spends a lot of time there with his family, although they moved out about five years ago, he said. Now, they are cautious when they are in the city.

“Every time we go there, my son included – by the way, my wife and daughter who were not even involved – you are always looking over your shoulder,” he said.

Keller’s City Council will discuss the case in an executive session during its next meeting at 6 pm Tuesday. The mayor said in a written statement that he hopes to share more information with residents after that.