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Ferguson Cop Who Arrested Two Reporters During Protests Also Hog-Tied A 12-Year-Old Boy

An article posted by the Huffington Post on Sunday evening reveals that Justin Cosma, a Ferguson police officer who arrested two reporters for sitting at a McDonald’s in Ferguson, is currently dealing with a civil rights lawsuit due to an incident where he hog-tied a 12-year-old boy. The lawsuit was filed in 2012 and derives from an incident in 2010, when Cosma was employed by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Cosma had just started working for the Ferguson police department when the lawsuit was filed. It is quite possible that the pending litigation was a contributing factor to him moving jobs.

Per the lawsuit, Cosma and another officer became confrontational with the child and intimidated him. Eventually, they threw the boy to the ground and choked him. The following is from the HuffPost article:

According to a lawsuit filed in 2012 in Missouri federal court, Justin Cosma and another officer, Richard Carter, approached a 12-year-old boy who was checking the mailbox at the end of his driveway in June 2010. Cosma was an officer with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at the time, the lawsuit states. The pair asked the boy if he’d been playing on a nearby highway, and he replied no, according to the lawsuit.

Then, the officers “became confrontational” and intimidated the child, the lawsuit claims. “Unprovoked and without cause, the deputies grabbed [the boy], choked him around the neck and threw him to the ground,” it says. The boy was shirtless at the time, and allegedly “suffered bruising, choke marks, scrapes and cuts across his body.”

The 12-year-old was transferred to a medical facility for treatment, but the lawsuit says Cosma and the other officer reported the incident as “assault of a law enforcement officer third degree” and “resisting/interfering with arrest, detention or stop.”

Jefferson County prosecutors “refused to issue a juvenile case” against the young child, the suit says.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/25/ferguson-cop-arrested-reporters-protests-hog-tied-12-year-old-boy.html