Yetter Coleman successfully represented a Texas inmate in a pro bono civil rights case. The jury trial was held in the U.S. District Court (S.D. Tex.) before the Hon. George C. Hanks, Jr., who had appointed Yetter Coleman as counsel for the plaintiff in 2016.
The plaintiff alleged he was handcuffed, slammed to the ground, and then beaten by a prison guard, resulting in a fractured rib and bruising. The prison guard denied the beating, and instead argued that the plaintiff had been belligerent, injuring himself resisting the guard’s efforts to escort him back to his cell. He pursued a pro se lawsuit for three years, before Yetter Coleman was appointed to represent him. In a three-day trial, he had the difficult burden of establishing that his version of the incident was correct while discrediting the testimony provided by the guards, as well as meeting the high thresholds of federal law. The jury returned a unanimous verdict awarding our client compensatory and double punitive damages.
Yetter Coleman’s trial team was led by partner Christopher Porter and associate Ari Aramesh.