JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville man is suing Sheriff T.K. Waters and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, claiming officers used excessive force and violated his constitutional rights during a February arrest on charges that were later dropped.
The case is now part of a growing list of lawsuits filed against JSO this year.
Michael Kistner says JSO officers punched and slammed him when they took him into custody on Feb. 1, and his lawyers allege he was unlawfully detained without probable cause.
It happened along Lakeside Drive in the Fairfax neighborhood after Kistner was alerted that his car was being towed. Kistner said he approached Officers Adnan Residovic and Officer B.T. Denton, asking for an explanation. One officer told Kistner his car was blocking the sidewalk, the suit says.
The lawsuit claims that after a short verbal exchange, the 62-year-old Kistner was slammed to the ground and punched in the face multiple times.
Kistner’s lawyers say he was compliant before and after the incident. He was arrested and accused of resisting an officer without violence, disorderly intoxication, and having an open container.
All the charges were dropped against Kistner by the State Attorney’s office about a month later.
Defense Attorney Gene Nichols, who is not associated with the case, says the sovereign immunity limits for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office are $200,000 per person and $300,00 per incident. The caps are set by Florida Statute and would apply to other high-profile lawsuits against JSO this year.
In February, William McNeil was struck in the face and arrested during a traffic stop that went viral after video of the incident circulated on social media. His lawsuit alleges excessive force and racial profiling.
In October, the violent arrest of Erika McGriff outside her daughter’s charter school also circulated on social media. She’s accused of battery on an officer and that incident is expected to result in another lawsuit against JSO by the same attorneys representing McNeil.
Last month, a federal lawsuit was filed against JSO by a man accusing the department of violently taking him down in 2022 as he left a doctor’s office in what his attorneys say was a case of mistaken identity.
Nichols says lawsuits against the sheriff’s office are heavily litigated, and often take a long time to prosecute.
“So they typically do take a long time. The General Counsel’s Office has an excellent group of lawyers who fight hard for the sheriff’s office because, again, this is monies that are coming out of, in essence, the coffers of the state or locally. So they’re going to do what they can to protect those monies,” Nichols said.
It’s worth noting that Kistner’s lawsuit represents one side of the story.
News4JAX did reach out to JSO about the case and requested his arrest report, but we did not immediately receive our request, and the sheriff’s office does not comment on pending litigation.
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