Lawsuit Claims City of Doral Stalled Probe Into Leg-Shattering Arrest

A man whose leg was snapped in half by a Doral police officer during an arrest has filed a lawsuit claiming the cop used "malicious" and "gratuitous" force seconds after a fellow officer proclaimed, "Someone is about to get stomped."

In the federal lawsuit, Craig Nembhard accuses Doral police officer Travis Cooper of false arrest and violating his civil rights in a 2019 incident in which Cooper pulled a gun on Nembhard, slammed him to the pavement, and broke his leg while detaining him on allegedly bogus charges following a traffic stop.

As Nembhard was writhing on the concrete, officers taunted him, telling him, "Shut up," "You're paralyzed, remember," and "You picked the wrong person to play chicken with," according to the complaint.

Four years have passed since the incident, Nembhard says, yet the City of Doral Police Department has stalled its internal investigation so that Cooper and other officers can avoid disciplinary action and evidence favorable to Nembhard is suppressed.

In a statement provided to New Times, the Doral Police Department denied the claims that it intentionally delayed completion of the probe.

"There is no validity to the allegation. The case was thoroughly investigated, and findings rendered," the department said. (New Times has requested copies of the internal investigation documents and the department's findings.)

On May 16, 2019, three police officers were stationed outside the Shell Gas Station near the Palmetto Expressway, ticketing drivers for illegally driving in a center lane, when they pulled over then-31-year-old Nembhard. An officer gave him a traffic citation for "improper center lane use," prompting a profanity-laced argument in which Nembhard claimed he was being ticketed for legally trying to turn into the gas station.

"Man, get your sorry ass out the way," Cooper interjected after seeing Nembhard arguing with the officer giving the ticket. "Get your gas."

"You're just mad when you can't do nothing," Nembhard replied during the wrangling, which was captured on police bodycam video. "My shit's legal. Fuck you, motherfucker!"

Moments later, Nembhard turned his car around. He says he was driving carefully and making no threats to police and that he simply turned so he could pull up to a pump on the same side as his gas cap. One officer warned, "Someone is about to get stomped."

"You pull up on me like that, boy? Get your ass out of the car!" Cooper yelled as Nembhard's car slowly approached the officers.

Cooper and another officer then pulled their guns on Nembhard before Cooper ripped him out of the car, shattering his leg. Nembhard can be heard in the video wailing in pain, insisting that he had done nothing wrong. He repeatedly told the officers that they brutalized him over a verbal argument, saying, "Just words... just words."

"You tried coming at me with the car!" Cooper insisted.

"No, I didn't. What are you talking about?" Nembhard said. "My leg is broke!"

Nembhard was transported to a local hospital for emergency treatment, where he spent several days and had to undergo surgery to repair his broken femur. A rod and screws were installed to stabilize his leg.

The lawsuit claims that Doral police arrested and imprisoned him "without probable cause" on charges of assaulting a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. According to the complaint, Cooper made false statements in an attempt to bolster the case against Nembhard.

The charges were dropped in June 2019.

"The State of Florida took no action on the criminal charges against Nembhard and failed to obtain a conviction on the traffic citation issued to Nembhard," the lawsuit says.

The complaint includes counts of malicious prosecution, false arrest, and violations of Nembhard's constitutional rights on the part of Cooper and two other officers on the scene. The City of Doral is listed as a defendant for allegedly failing to train and supervise the officers properly.

"I got to learn to walk again," Nembhard told NBC 6. "I lost my job. I lost my apartment because I couldn't work."

According to Nembhard, the Doral Police Department intentionally kept the internal investigation on "open" status to suppress evidence "that could potentially be used against [the officers] in this action."

The City of Doral did not immediately respond to New Times' request for comment.

"The defendant police officers escalated what had been a traffic citation encounter into a sadistic, malicious, and gratuitous use of excessive force," the lawsuit says.