Emmett Brock, a teacher, was driving home from work and saw an LASD member berating a woman. Brock flipped the officer off and drove on. Next thing you know, Brock is calling 911 to report that the gang member is following him and he feels unsafe. Deputy Joseph Benza pulled Brock over in a 7-11 parking lot, blocked his car in, and proceeded to beat the shit out of him, before arresting a person who exercised their free speech with a hand gesture.
At the jailhouse, Brock suffered further. Having told deputies he is a transgender man, Brock was subject to a disgusting physical search. The attack is shown in the video below, and this lawsuit will result in another large payout by the LA Sheriffs for abusing the populace.
"He must've punched him eight to 10 times in the head, maliciously," said Brock's attorney Thomas Beck. "There was no reason for the contact. It was purely retaliatory."
Benza placed Brock in his cruiser, and he was booked on charges of mayhem, causing serious injury to a deputy, resisting arrest and failing to obey a lawful order.
"This deputy is a thin-skinned thug and what he did to this man on tape proves it," Beck said.
Brock told jail employees he was a transgender man, and they demanded to examine his genitals before then placing him in a women's detention cell, and he was fired from his job after the school was notified of his pending charges.
"I lost so much of myself that day in the parking lot," Brock said said. "But I love what I do, and it is kind of how I define myself — and for that to be taken away? It felt like I had just lost everything."
The deputy claims Brock bit him during the incident, but medical reports show no evidence of injury, and he's planning to sue the sheriff's department over his treatment at the jail.
