An amputee is suing an Alabama sheriff’s department, claiming he only lost his left hand from being kept in too-tight handcuffs for hours during an arrest.
Giovanni Loyola, 28, claims in a federal civil rights complaint that his constitutional rights against excessive force and unlawful arrest were violated after his 2020 arrest for disorderly conduct, AL.com reported.
He alleges that he asked for help loosening the cuffs after being restrained for several hours but that deputies at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department ignored him, according to the outlet.
The circulation in his wrist was blocked and led to the hand needing to be surgically removed, claims Loyola, of Pinson, just outside Birmingham.
“It’s horrible. I don’t wish that pain on nobody,” Loyola told the outlet in an earlier interview.
“It’s just really unexpected. I have no words for it.”
He filed the complaint in the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The trial is scheduled to begin April 15.
Loyola was arrested on Feb. 16, 2020, when he was at his mother’s trailer watching TV, AL.com reported, citing the complaint in which officers say he eventually fought with them.
Courtesy of Jon Goldfarb
Deputy Christopher Godber said in his report that he and two other deputies went to the trailer park after receiving multiple calls about gunshots and two men fighting.
Loyola claims he was not fighting anyone and that his brothers may have just been arguing outside, according to the outlet.
He accused the deputies of being aggressive when he answered the door.
“Deputy Godber, without answering and without asking permission to enter the home, reached inside the doorway, grabbed Plaintiff by the wrist, and jerked him outside the home and down the steps,” the complaint reportedly states.
Loyola, who is 5-foot-5 and weighed 132 pounds at the time, claims he was slammed into a car, thrown on the ground, and punched in the face.
Courtesy of Jon Goldfarb
Godber handcuffed him tightly as he lay on the ground and said he was doing nothing wrong, according to the complaint.
“(He) doesn’t know how to be f–king quiet,” Godber allegedly said.
Loyola pleaded for help in getting the cuffs adjusted but the deputies ignored him, the complaint states.
Godber reported that Loyola’s speech was slurred, that he was drunk and was arguing with relatives loudly inside his mom’s trailer.
“Dep. Godber tried to detain Loyola where he immediately became combative pushing Dep. Godber away,” the deputy’s report to the magistrate says, according to AL.com.
Loyola then fought with deputies and resisted being cuffed, Godber’s report states.
He claims his requests for medical treatment in jail were denied and that he was later told at a hospital that he’d need an operation on his hand.
“(He) was found to have a severe problem with blood flow to his left hand and is in need of emergent surgery,” the complaint states.
The tops of three of his fingers were removed but the hand remained so painful that he eventually underwent several surgeries and had it amputated.
A spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office told AL.com that it does not comment on pending litigation.
According to police experts who spoke to the outlet, severe handcuffing injuries are uncommon because standard cuffs have a double-locking mechanism that keeps them from tightening.
“I think it’s extremely rare to see anything so serious as an amputation,” Ken Wallentine, a use-of-force expert consultant and chief of the West Jordan Police Department in Utah, told AL.com in May 2021.
He said double-locking cuffs and performing a “pinky test” — leaving the room the size of a pinky — are basic safety procedures taught in law enforcement training.
In 2013, a woman sued after losing an arm during an arrest in Pittsburgh, according to the outlet.
