Woman’s lawsuit says Lakewood officers broke her arm while handcuffing her in 2018
A 40-year-old woman has sued the Lakewood Police Department, alleging officers broke her arm in two places in 2018 while handcuffing her at a grocery store as she suffered a mental health crisis.
Young Choi’s lawsuit against Lakewood and the officers was filed last month in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
“Seeing her shoeless and in distress, Officers Brian Luttrull and David Butts soon slammed Ms. Choi to the ground and snapped her arm in two places while handcuffing her as they sat on top of her,” the lawsuit said. “As a result of this negligent escalation of force and application of excessive force in violation of her constitutional rights, Ms. Choi suffered physically and emotionally.”
Asked if the agency or the officers would like to comment, a police department spokesperson said they do not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, gives this account of what happened:
Choi has bi-polar disorder and was having a manic episode Feb. 21, 2018 while she was at the grocery store near South Tacoma Way and 96th Street South.
“During this mental health crisis, Plaintiff Choi became upset over the condition of the store’s produce,” the lawsuit said. “She confronted store staff to express her displeasure.”
Then she saw people were trying to record her, and she started confronting them.
She was barefoot and was shoving one of those people when the officers arrived.
Luttrull took her wrist and tried to lead her out of the store, and Choi pointed with her other hand and said she needed her purse.
Then Luttrull pulled her to the floor, and he and Butts ended up on top of the woman to try to handcuff her.
Butts “immobilized” her arm at the shoulder and pulled her right wrist to get her arm behind her back.
“At that point, Plaintiff Choi’s upper arm audibly snapped, and her right arm went limp,” the lawsuit said.
She screamed. Then the officers finished handcuffing her and called for medics.
“Plaintiff Choi sat on the floor, her arm broken, with her hands cuffed behind her back for more than 10 minutes,” the lawsuit said.
An ambulance took her to Madigan Army Medical Center. Her humerus was broken in two places, and she had surgery and months of physical therapy.
Her arm doesn’t work as well as it did before the breaks, the lawsuit said.
Choi was charged with fourth-degree assault and obstructing an officer and ultimately agreed to a stipulated order of continuance, according to court records. That means the charges are dismissed if a defendant follows conditions of the agreement.
Butts has worked with Lakewood since 2004 and in law enforcement since 1999, according to News Tribune archives.
He was one of the officers sued after police killed 37-year-old Daniel Covarrubias in 2015 at a Lakewood lumber yard.
Covarrubias was on top of a pile of lumber, having a mental health crisis, when Butts and another officer fired, that lawsuit said. Police later determined Covarrubias had pointed a cellphone at them. He was not armed. Prosecutors found the shooting justified.
Butts also was one of two officers sued as part of a 2009 case, the Seattle Times reported. The plaintiff in that case alleged in part that he was pushed into a police car face down and that Butts handcuffed him tightly enough to cut off circulation to his hands.
