In March, 2015, Amanda Zdarsky and Bill Kurnik obtained a defense verdict in an excessive force claim filed against Lake Station police officers in the Hammond Division of the Northern District of Indiana. The plaintiff was selling Methadone and an undercover buy was set up in a local Burger King parking lot. A flash-bang device was used to distract the plaintiff and the undercover informant who were seated in the plaintiff’s car and one of the four officers forcibly removed the resisting plaintiff from his car, and threw him to the ground. The plaintiff sustained a four-part fracture of the proximal humerus, which his treating physician described as the bone having “exploded.” Plaintiff claimed he felt the fracture as his arm was twisted behind his back during handcuffing. Both the defense expert, a biomechanical engineer, and the treating physician opined that the fractures of this type typically occur during a low-energy fall on an outstretched arm or the side of the shoulder. These fractures are common in the elderly and the treating physician opined that the plaintiff had the bone density of a post-menopausal 80-year old woman due to the Prednisone use for COPD.
Kresich v. City of Lake Station, et al.