July 12, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1423

LOS ANGELES, July 11: A teenager whose videotaped beating by police in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood has enraged black leaders and triggered an FBI investigation filed a “seven-figure” federal civil rights lawsuit over the altercation on Wednesday.

Lawyers for 16-year-old Donovan Jackson filed the lawsuit on behalf of the boy and his father, who are both black, claiming that Inglewood police and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies pulled both of them out of a car and beat them for no reason while shouting threats and racial epithets.

“We want to send the City of Inglewood a message that we are going to prosecute this case as vigorously and roughly as they beat our clients,” attorney John Sweeney said.

But a report written by deputies after the beating — and before the videotape surfaced — portrays the incident as a struggle between police and Jackson.

The tape, shot by 27-year-old Mitchell Crooks from his motel room across the street, shows Inglewood Officer Morse lifting Jackson from the ground in handcuffs and slamming him onto a squad car.—Reuters