Student Sues UCLA

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/16485616.htm

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - A UCLA student who was shocked with a Taser by campus police
after refusing to show his identification card sued the university
Wednesday,

claiming his civil rights were violated.

Mostafa Tabatabainejad, 23, alleges University of California, Los Angeles
campus police officers used excessive force by repeatedly shocking him with
the

stun gun Nov. 14, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court.

Tabatabainejad refused to show his student ID to a security guard during a
check at the Powell Library because he believed he was singled out based on
his

Middle Eastern appearance, the lawsuit said. He is Iranian-American.

Tabatabainejad had agreed to show his card on the condition that the guard
check the IDs of other students in the library, but the request was denied,
according

to the lawsuit.

As he was walking out of the library, Tabatabainejad said a campus police
officer grabbed him by the arm and told him to leave. A second officer
arrived

and then dragged him toward the exit, where he was shocked several times.

Tabatabainejad said he tried to remain calm, explaining to the officers
that he was a student and that he suffers from bipolar disorder. The lawsuit
claims

the officers violated the Americans With Disabilities Act and caused
intentional infliction of emotional distress.

"He told the officers he had the condition and the officers' response was
to Taser him and to hurt him rather to deal with him as a person with a
disability,"

Tabatabainejad's attorney Paul Hoffman said.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, names UCLA, the
campus police department and officers Terrence Duren and Alexis Bicomong as
defendants.

UCLA's acting chancellor, Norm Abrams, said the university was pursuing an
independent investigation along with an internal campus police department
probe.

"Shortly after the incident, I urged everyone not to rush to judgment and
to let the investigations take their course. We regret that Mostafa
Tabatabainejad

has filed a lawsuit at this time," Abrams said in a statement.

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Posted by Miriam V.