Man Files Suit Against Richfield Police Department For Unlawful Arrest, False Imprisonment

A former Richfield resident who was convicted of making terroristic threats in 2011 has filed his second suit against the alleging that police violated his civil rights by illegally arresting and falsely imprisoning him.

Billy Edward McCoy, 41, filed the lawsuit Jan. 9 in U.S. District Court of Minnesota. The lawsuit seeks $250,000 in compensatory damages along with unspecified punitive damages. In the first suit, the Richfield Police Department pleaded no contest, according to McCoy's new suit.

According to McCoy’s complaint, “heavily armed” Richfield police officers arrested McCoy at about 11:30 a.m. Sept. 23, 2011, and took him to jail.

McCoy claimed that he was arrested without probable cause, and police coerced an alleged victim into agreeing with a false police report or face arrest herself, according to the complaint.

In the document, McCoy accused police of abusing their positions as officers of the law to retaliate against him for the previous lawsuit, his refusal to become a police informant and his complaints about police harassment, which were described as “random searches without probable cause and malicious threats.”

McCoy’s complaint also alleges that Richfield police targeted McCoy’s friends and falsified police reports. He said officers “randomly and wantonly” visited his house and conducted “unlawful police activity” for five years.

In addition, McCoy stated that he complained to the police department via “numerous e-mails and phone calls,” but the department demonstrated “gross indifference” to his constitutional rights by ignoring his complaints.

McCoy claims that he suffered loss of wages, loss of personal reputation, emotional trauma, humiliation and fear of Richfield police and their superiors.

McCoy was found guilty in November 2011 of making terroristic threats, a felony for which he served a year in the Hennepin County Jail.

Richfield Police Chief Todd Sandell told Richfield Patch the department had not yet been served with the suit and was not aware that McCoy was going to take such action. As a result, he was not able to comment on the second suit.

However, Sandell did recall the first suit McCoy filed and said it stemmed from an incident in April 2009 and was settled in 2011. Knowing now of the second suit, Sandell expected to receive the documents from the federal district court within the next couple weeks.

The full suit has been attached to this article and can be seen in the photo box above.

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