Jury believes ball-playing pals, not arresting officer

Shawn Clowney, 32, loves basketball. After work and on weekends, he often plays pickup games in Patterson Park.

But he almost quit the sport after being sprayed with mace and taken into custody by a Baltimore police officer after a 2006 game. “I didn’t play basketball for a year-and-a-half after that,” he said.

Clowney and four other men were arrested by Officer Robert G. Cirello and charged with various counts of assault just as they were wrapping up an evening of basketball in the city park. The charges were later dismissed, and on April 23 a Baltimore City Circuit Court jury awarded the five a combined $1.85 million.

James L. Rhodes, a Baltimore lawyer who represented Clowney and three of the other men, said the plaintiffs prevailed because the jury recognized that the events could not have played out as the officer described.

“His story was so incredibly unbelievable that I think it simply insulted the jury,” Rhodes said.

Cirello’s lawyer, Patrick D. Sheridan, who was associate legal counsel for the Baltimore Police Department’s Office of Legal Affairs at the time, no longer holds that job. A phone call requesting comment from someone else in the Office of Legal Affairs was not returned.

Clowney said he had played basketball at Patterson Park without any trouble since he was a young teen. “We consider that our park,” he said. “I never had any run-ins with no police at the park. The police usually watch us play.”

But on July 17, 2006, as Clowney and friends Jacob Adams, Charles Bowman and Kerney Toomer were finishing their game, Cirello rode over on his bicycle, Clowney recalled. “He just rolled up and said, ‘Get the f— out of here’ or he was going to start [frisking us].”

Clowney said he asked for the officer’s badge number, and that’s when things got ugly. Cirello refused, then followed the men as they were leaving the park, according to Clowney.

The officer sprayed his face with mace, Clowney said, adding, “I have asthma, and I couldn’t catch my breath. It was just burning.”

Clowney said that when he dropped to the ground and began rubbing his face in the dirt, Cirello handcuffed him behind his back. “I was asking the whole time, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ ” he said.

Bowman was sprayed with mace as well, Clowney said.

“All of us are high school graduates, all of us have jobs,” he said.

Cirello arrested the four friends, plus Rudolph Hill, who had been watching the game.

According to Rhodes, Cirello argued that Hill had been involved, too, but Hill is in his forties. The jury could clearly see that he wouldn’t have been playing basketball with the younger men, Rhodes said.

The officer also claimed that Clowney had pulled a knife, which Rhodes said is not true. “None of the events this officer described ever happened at all,” the attorney said.

“When you consider that the officer—I think he’s about 5 foot 6, about 170 pounds—” said he fended off five large, athletic men, it makes no sense, Rhodes said. “Five of these guys supposedly beat him for a good 30 seconds straight … and he’s able to disarm them and arrest all five without ever having to pull his gun?”

Rhodes said Cirello countersued, arguing that he had been the one who was attacked.

Cirello was shot in the park a few months later, and he claimed the same men were responsible. The officer sued for that shooting as well, Rhodes said. But when Rhodes sent a subpoena to the police department asking for records relating to the shooting, the department’s Office of Legal Affairs dropped that portion of the counterclaim, said Rhodes.

After only two hours of deliberation, the jury awarded each of the five men $250,000 in punitive damages. For pain and suffering, Hill was awarded $250,000; Clowney, $90,000; Bowman, $77,000; Toomer, $76,500 and Adams, $75,000. Adams was awarded $12,000 and Clowney $4,200 in lost wages. Attorneys’ fees, based on what they paid in the criminal trial, were awarded to four of the men.

“I knew the criminal case was going to go well,” Clowney said. “I never thought the civil case would go as well.”

Rhodes said he originally asked for $4 million. “I thought the outrageous actions that night demanded a large figure if for no other purpose than to say this is conduct that won’t be tolerated,” he said.

The attorney said he expects the final amounts to be reduced. The judge, John Carroll Byrnes, “made some comments that he would reduce if not get rid of all the punitive damages,” Rhodes said.

As for Clowney, he’s back to playing basketball — he broke his pinkie during a recent game. Once he receives the money awarded to him, he plans to move out of Baltimore, maybe to Pennsylvania. He has three children and two stepchildren, he said. “I just want to stay out of trouble and do right by them.” {EXA}

Karen Nitkin is a freelance writer based in Ellicott City.