COLUMBIA, MO -- The City of Columbia and three police officers are facing a lawsuit filed by Ken Baker. He’s the man seen in a video getting pushed by former officer Rob Sanders in a holding cell.
According to the lawsuit, the shove into a concrete floor caused injury to Baker’s spine and back of the head. The suit claims the force used by Sanders was “unreasonable” and “excessive.”
It also names the two other officers seen in the video, Brandon Crites and Matthew Hibler, because they did not intervene.
The lawsuit goes on to claim the City and its police department did not adequately train officers:
--on the use of force in holding cells,
--how to detain inmates, (Baker was chained to the floor of the holding cell while bleedin)
--and the proper way to attend to inmates’ medical needs.
The holding cell incident led the department to fire Sanders. He’s also the subject of two other investigations that came up after he was let go. One involves another holding cell incident caught on camera; the other involves a video posted online.
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