EAST CLEVELAND – The Fox 8 I-Team has learned a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas jury awarded a man $22 million after he sued East Cleveland police for beating him and locking him in a closet for four days.
The jury reached the decision Tuesday in the courtroom of Judge John Sutula.
East Cleveland officials say they plan to appeal.
Atty. Bob DiCello says his client Arnold Black was fraudulently arrested in 2012.
“I asked them why they arrested me and they wouldn’t say,” Black said.
He was handcuffed, beaten, and then put in a storage closet. He said he was locked inside the closet for four days.
“I had to use the lockers for a bathroom,” Black said.
He said he was given no food during his stay.
“This should never have happened,” DiCello said.
East Cleveland officials say the officers involved in this case no longer work for their department.