A newly filed lawsuit alleges officers from the Hawthorne (Calif.) Police Department beat a deaf man and shocked him with a Taser as he tried to sign that he couldn't hear, KNBC reports.
The Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness filed the lawsuit this week on behalf of a deaf man from Manhattan Beach, claiming the officers committed a civil rights violation under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act during a confrontation last year.
According to the man's lawyer, the incident happened Feb. 13, 2013, when Jonathan Meister made arrangements to pick up a few belongings from his friend's home on the 3550 block of 147th Street in Hawthorne.
A neighbor apparently mistook Meister for a thief and called police. The neighborhood, according to a police report, had experienced a recent rash in burglaries.
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