WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has joined the federal lawsuit filed by Andre Howton against the Westover Police Department. The suit accuses officers Zachary Fecsko and Aaron Dalton of pulling Howton from his apartment and violently beating him causing permanent injuries.
Then Westover chief of police, Richard Panico is also named in the case.
In the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2019 police were called to Howton’s apartment to remove a woman. After the woman was removed a verbal altercation continued that led to police pulling Howton from the apartment and beating him. Howton suffered multiple facial fractures, broke at least three teeth and other serious permanent injuries. The entire incident was captured on the Officer Dalton’s body cam.
“The utter disregard for the constitutional rights of Mr. Howton, who requested assistance from these officers, is outrageous,” said Tianna Mays, senior counsel in the Criminal Justice Project, at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The officers have a history of violence and should be ashamed to call themselves public servants. The failure to terminate them is only eclipsed by the failure to hold the system accountable at large.”
According to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, “boy” has been used throughout history to insult and demean people of color.
“We must recognize the connection of this case to the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday the nation celebrated on Monday. Doctor King shed light on the use of the word ‘boy’ as a tool of oppression,” said Arthur Ago, director of the Criminal Justice Project at the Lawyers’ Committee.
“The type of behavior of the officers here – calling an older Black man “boy,” pulling him from his home, and then beating him mercilessly – is part of a pattern of unchecked violence against Black communities, motivated by a sense of superiority and a lack of accountability,” said Arusha Gordon, associate director of the James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate, a project of the Lawyers’ Committee.
Officers Dalton and Fecsko are still employed by the Westover Police Department. Formore chief of police Richard Panico has retired.