A Wells man who spent four years trying to take York County jail officers to trial for using a Taser against him has settled his civil lawsuit.

Brian Dunnigan, 63, agreed Tuesday to settle claims against York County corrections officers Eric Daigneault and Donovan Cram, the two remaining defendants in his 2019 lawsuit. Dunnigan alleged that Daigneault kneeled on his chest and pressed his Taser to him for almost one minute while Cram and another officer held him down, his head bouncing against the cement floor.

A notice filed in U.S. District Court in Portland says, “The parties have represented that this case has been resolved.” No further information about the settlement was released. Dunnigan, his attorney and attorneys for the defendants did not provide a copy of the agreement.

Dunnigan and the officers have 30 days to officially dismiss the case. Dunnigan would be barred from refiling his lawsuit.

Dunnigan and his attorneys said he could not speak about the case.  

Daigneault and Cram were the only remaining defendants. A federal judge dismissed his claims against the jail and the sheriff’s department in March, ruling that Dunnigan had failed to prove that his injuries were the result of poor use of force policies by the county. Dunnigan agreed to drop his claims against a third officer, Matthew Rocchio, in October 2022.

An attorney for Daigneault did not respond to emails and calls about the settlement and Dunnigan’s allegations. Daigneault did not respond to a voicemail Tuesday afternoon. Cram’s attorney, John Wall, declined to comment on the settlement. Cram did not respond to a Facebook message Tuesday.

Dunnigan was arrested and brought to the York County jail in Alfred in February 2018 on charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and criminal mischief. The charges were later dropped.

The settlement saves the two parties from having to reconcile two very different accounts, one from a man who says he was unjustly punished for “verbal antagonisms,” the other from a man who said he was just doing his job and acting in self-defense.

Dunnigan’s attorneys say in court records that the county failed to preserve key evidence that would have supported their client’s claims – surveillance footage from five of the jail’s cameras, some of which was provided, and some of which had been overwritten and no longer exists.

DISPUTED TIMELINE

Dunnigan was brought to the jail on Feb. 16, 2018. A bar owner had tried kicking him out and called police to issue a criminal trespass notice but Dunnigan wouldn’t comply, an Ogunquit police officer wrote in a report from that night. Dunnigan was threatening the bar owner and shouting profanities at an officer.

Dunnigan’s testimony and that of jail staff begin to differ soon after he arrived at the jail, creating an unclear timeline of when the Taser was used, how and why. The settlement means the details won’t be disputed in a courtroom or decided by a jury.

Dunnigan said it all started because Daigneault, the supervising officer, made a derogatory remark about him being drunk and from Massachusetts. Dunnigan said he cussed him out.

The officer didn’t recall any of this. In a sworn deposition, he said Dunnigan was simply too agitated and drunk, and that officers deal with agitated detainees regularly.

“We just deal with them at their worst time frame and that’s how it is,” Daigneault said.

Placed in a single holding cell, Dunnigan said that he pleaded with officers for medical attention. His shoulder hurt, he was shouting at the officers, saying he was a Type 2 diabetic and needed insulin and hospital treatment.

He said officers tried to put him in a restraint chair after he acted like he was going to attempt suicide, but the buckles wouldn’t work and Dunnigan was sent back to his cell – on the way, Dunnigan said he called Daigneault a “moron.” He said he could hear his cell door slamming behind him, only to reopen as Daigneault entered and charged at him “like he was playing football.”

He said the officer was kneeling on his chest while two others held him down. He testified that Daigneault held the Taser to his chest for nearly a minute straight.

Daigneault disputed most of Dunnigan’s account – he said Dunnigan attacked him, pushing him in the chest, and appeared as if he would try to run out of the cell. He called in the officers for backup and tried using the Taser in a less-intense “probe” mode first, but Dunnigan had removed his shirt and was using it to deflect the darts. So Daigneault switched to a dry-stun mode, which is more intense. Dunnigan’s complaint likens the dry-stun to a “supercharged cattle prod.” He said he used it three times, pausing between each firing.

He said it was only after using his Taser that he took Dunnigan to the restraint chair and called for medical staff to make sure Dunnigan was OK, following jail policy.

The officer also questioned Dunnigan’s scars. Daigneault said he had never seen injuries left by a Taser. He didn’t think it was possible.

“You’ve never seen what happens when you – after you Taser someone?” Dunnigan’s previous attorney, Benjamin Donahue, asked him.

“I have never seen marks caused by a Taser that I’ve done before,” Daigneault said. “There hasn’t been any marks.”

LOST RECORDS

An internal investigation ordered by the sheriff determined that the officers acted appropriately under the circumstances. A captain interviewed the officers, reviewed Daigneault’s use of force report that he signed as his own supervisor – only one of four King said his office had filed between 2012 and 2018 – and watched surveillance video from the night of Dunnigan’s arrest.

When Dunnigan sued a year later, some of what his attorneys said would have been central evidence was already gone. A 14-minute chunk of surveillance video from outside Dunnigan’s jail cell, before Daigneault used his Taser, had been overwritten, Dunnigan’s attorneys wrote in court records.

The jail provided footage from a combination of five cameras in the intake area, the room with the restraint chair and outside Dunnigan’s cell. There was no camera in Dunnigan’s cell. The footage spanned roughly one hour, according to court records, but the jail couldn’t provide a full hour from each camera.

Lt. Daniel Bean, who oversaw the video records for the sheriff’s office, said in a deposition that the jail’s footage gets overwritten five months after it’s recorded, unless someone chooses to save it.

Tom Hallett, Dunnigan’s other attorney, wrote in court documents that the missing video “would have resolved a key factual dispute” of whether Daigneault acted in self-defense or if the attack was premeditated.

The jail said that video wouldn’t have shown much, maybe eight to 10 seconds actually captured Dunnigan.

“It is difficult to appreciate what prejudice might be caused to the plaintiff by the missing eight to 10 seconds of a single camera angle,” Peter Marchesi, the attorney representing York County, said in court documents.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.

« Previous

Tiny Washington County town again delays plan to build the world’s tallest flagpole

Next »

Man whose body was found on Winslow riverbank was caring person who fell into addiction, father says