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After a struggle with several officers during his arrest, Michael Norris, who was not armed, was hospitalized with multiple facial, elbow and rib fractures, along with a hemorrhage in his right eye, bruising up and down his body and pain in his lungs from being unable to breathe during the attack, according to UF Health records The Tributary reviewed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael Norris was holding his newly adopted puppy and leaving a gas station when a haggard man approached him and asked him for crack cocaine. Norris said he told the stranger he didn\u2019t have anything, that he doesn\u2019t use coke. But the man, Norris said, kept pestering him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on, man, I\u2019m sick, I\u2019m really sick,\u201d Norris, 48, recalled the man saying.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually, Norris sold him $25 worth of meth out of his personal stash. He said he warned the man that he doesn\u2019t normally do that, but he wanted to help \u2013 he \u201cfelt sorry for the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris and his dog got into a truck with the man so they could go to a nearby smoke shop to get a pipe. When they parked and Norris opened the truck\u2019s passenger door, he was immediately seized around the arms and waist by a Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s officer who slammed his head into the pavement, according to body camera footage reviewed by The Tributary.<\/p>\n
The haggard man was an undercover cop \u2013 and on May 1, Norris became the latest person to experience what Jacksonville police call a \u201cresponse to resistance\u201d \u2013 even though he says he wasn\u2019t resisting at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came at me and didn\u2019t even give me time to do anything,\u201d Norris recalled in an interview. \u201cThey just tackled me to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a struggle with several officers, Norris, who was not armed, was hospitalized with multiple facial, elbow and rib fractures, along with a hemorrhage in his right eye, bruising up and down his body and pain in his lungs from being unable to breathe during the attack, according to UF Health records The Tributary reviewed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Norris has taken the first step in filing a lawsuit against JSO by securing civil rights attorney Alisha Hurdle, who said a future lawsuit will allege human-rights violations and unnecessary use of force.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is the kind of complaint the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office has come under fire for multiple times in the past few years.<\/p>\n
The police report written after Norris was arrested accused him of not complying with commands to get on the ground, so officers \u201cescorted the suspect to the ground.\u201d The report alleged that Norris continued to resist by \u201ccurling his arms underneath his body.\u201d The body-cam footage shows he was already being hurled to the ground before any instructions were given.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that police have to use force, but this is beyond excessive force,\u201d Hurdle, Norris\u2019s attorney, said after she reviewed the body-camera footage. She added that at no point did an officer tell Norris he was under arrest. Additionally, after Norris was cuffed, he was questioned without his Miranda Rights being read, she said.<\/p>\n
Norris was charged with selling meth and resisting an officer without violence. Prosecutors dropped the resisting charge, and Norris pleaded not guilty to selling. He\u2019s been arrested dozens of times for drug possession, and Hurdle wonders if officers targeted Norris specifically.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not saying that Michael wasn\u2019t wrong, but he definitely wasn\u2019t intending to sell. He is not a dealer,\u201d Hurdle said. \u201cThe evidence that was brought against Michael is a singular bag of methamphetamine, not multiple baggies, because he was not selling.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the video shows<\/p>\n
When Norris and the undercover officer parked in front of a smoke shop in the City Thrift shopping center, officers surrounded the vehicle and started to yell at Norris to get on the ground. Before he could step out of the truck, Norris\u2019s 130-pound body was whipped out of the vehicle and violently thrown to the pavement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The left side of Norris\u2019s head and body slammed into the ground, likely causing the facial fracture that doctors later recommended surgery to fix. Norris has not been able to get that surgery. On the ground, officers yelled at Norris to put his hands behind his back, but at least one officer was holding onto his right arm, according to the video reviewed by The Tributary.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see an officer that punches him in the face several times, and then there\u2019s another officer that\u2019s punching him in the ribs,\u201d Hurdle said, adding that at one point, an officers hand was on Norris\u2019s head, driving into the ground. \u201cThey keep telling him to put his hands behind his back, but at the same time they\u2019re holding his arms and preventing him from being able to move.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The struggle lasted about a minute. Norris kept yelling that his face and ribs hurt as blood pooled around his head. As he cried out in pain, he was told to \u201cshut the f\u2013-k up.\u201d Ordered to \u201cquit trying to get up,\u201d Norris responded, \u201cI\u2019m not!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was taken to UF Health by an ambulance that JSO called. Medical records show he was prescribed several medications. His jail records, which The Tributary reviewed, show that Norris asked several times when he was behind bars to be given his medication.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He and Hurdle say he never got them. Norris doesn\u2019t know what happened to his puppy.<\/p>\n
The Tributary requested a copy of the Response-to-Resistance form that officers noted on the arrest report was filled out. JSO\u2019s record department declined to release the form, stating, \u201cThe case you are requesting is an active Criminal Investigation.\u201d Hurdle said she has also not been able to get a copy of the form.<\/p>\n
Hurdle plans to file a civil lawsuit against the city regarding Norris\u2019s arrest. Her lawsuit will be one of dozens filed against the sheriff\u2019s office since 2022. Since then, the department has doled out $1.9 million in these types of cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael is a good person,\u201d Hurdle said. \u201cWe\u2019re not saying he\u2019s not a drug user. We\u2019re saying he is, and he needs help. I still want to get him access to rehab, because that\u2019s what he needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nichole Manna is The Tributary\u2019s senior investigative reporter. You can reach her at nichole.manna@jaxtrib.org.<\/p>\n
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