‘SAD DAY’

Black Army Lt. Pepper Sprayed by Cops Given Less Than $4K in $1M Lawsuit

The federal jury mostly sided with the two officers who struck and handcuffed Caron Nazario in 2020.

A Black soldier who was pepper sprayed by police during a traffic stop in 2020 was on Tuesday awarded just $3,685 in his lawsuit seeking $1 million. The federal jury in Virginia found mostly in favor of two Windsor, Virginia, police officers who handcuffed and sprayed Caron Nazario, a second lieutenant in the Army, two years ago. Nazario had been pulled over for not having a visible rear license plate, police said, with the incident escalating when Nazario said he was “honestly afraid to get out” of his vehicle. Nazario was awarded $1,000 in damages after the jury found Daniel Crocker had violated his rights under state law, along with another $2,685 in damages after finding that officer Joe Gutierrez assaulted Nazario. Nazario’s lawyer, Tom Roberts, said the outcome was a “sad day” which failed to show other police officers that “this conduct is unacceptable.”