Man sues Ogden police officers for 'excessive force'
SALT LAKE CITY — On Monday, a lawsuit was officially filed between Shawn Sims and his attorney against Ogden police officers. His attorney is seeking relief for “excessive force,” he claims police used on Sims.
On Monday, Shawn’s mom, Marsha, and his attorney, Robert B. Sykes, played the released body camera footage.
Attorney Sykes described Shawn as jay walking and claimed his hands were visible before the beating happened.
“You judge force at the time. You can’t justify what you learn later,” Sykes said.
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Marsha said her son struggled with drug addiction but did not have drugs on him that day.
She said the beating left her son temporarily blind in one eye, experiencing numbness and what could be a developing stutter.
She said her son told her, “I didn’t fight them because I didn’t want to die.”
After this incident, KSL reported on a phone call where Shawn can be heard on the phone in jail talking with his mom and admitting faking a gun.
On Monday, his mom denied hearing that.
“If you listen to the transcript of that, there was no acknowledgement by myself, and you better believe if I heard my son say that, there would have been acknowledgment. I did not acknowledge that because I did not hear my son say that,” Marsha said.
Ogden police said all four officers’ use of force was justified. Their reasoning includes describing Shawn withdrawing his hand from his waistband, pushing it out under his shirt in a way as if he was pointing a gun at the police officers under his shirt.
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