UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - A guidance counselor who said he was beaten by three police officers in a case of mistaken identity has been awarded more than $900,000.
Kirk Simms, 36, said he was handcuffed and beaten in the head and knees by officers from three departments - Prince George's, Hyattsville and Mount Rainier - in 1990 before they realized they had detained an innocent man. Simms said he looked like a suspect wanted for assaulting an officer.
A jury ruled Thursday that one of the Prince George's officers, Cpl. Joseph Zeigler, had battered Simms and that the officer and the county must pay $902,433 in compensatory damages.
The other officers involved in the incident were dropped from the lawsuit because they could not be conclusively identified, said Steven D. Kupferberg, an attorney for Simms.
Zeigler, 38, who denied wrongdoing, is still on the force, a police spokesman said. Andrew Murray, the county attorney involved in the case, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
The award was the latest in a string of jury verdicts that have levied at least $5.5 million in damages for police misconduct against the fast-growing suburban county north of Washington.
The award came one day after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a sweeping civil rights investigation of the Prince George's Police Department to determine whether brutality and racial discrimination are widespread throughout the force.
Kupferberg said Simms was ''elated and vindicated'' by the verdict.
Simms, who was walking to the store when he was suddenly surrounded by officers, suffered torn cartilage in one knee and still needs surgery, his attorneys said. He also sustained lacerations to his face.
