South Daytona, FL - The South Daytona Police Department is named as the defendant in an excessive and deadly use lawsuit. Attorney Benjamin Crump, the attorney of record in the George Floyd case, filed the suit on behalf of the mother of Timothy Coffman, a white man who died on July 2, 2018, at the age of 36.
A check of the Volusia County Jail's records shows that Coffman was arrested at least 40 times since 2001. The charges include resisting arrest with violence, battery on a law enforcement officer, car and home break-ins, loitering and possession of paraphernalia. In the forty or so mugshots on the VCJ website, Coffman often has a black eye or a split lip.
During a press conference yesterday (June 18), Crump said that evidence shows that the police officers already knew that Coffman suffered from mental illness. Crump also said there are similarities in the cases of George Floyd and Timothy Coffman. In both cases, the men became unconscious after four minutes of having a knee pressed into the back of their necks. The difference is that South Daytona police officers let up off of Coffman when he became unconscious. He still died four days after the incident.
In a press release, Crump stated that Coffman was 'beaten with a baton, tased numerous times and held face down on the ground by four South Daytona Police Department officers. The officers obstructed his ability to breathe until he lost consciousness. He never regained consciousness and died four days later from a brain injury sustained during the attack.'
The lawsuit was filed yesterday (June 18).
