Jerime Mitchell shooting: April trial set in lawsuit against Cedar Rapids, police officer

CEDAR RAPIDS — A civil trial against the city and a white police officer who shot a Black man during a 2016 traffic stop, leaving him paralyzed, remains on track to start next month in Linn County District Court.

Lawyers for Jerime and Bracken Mitchell, who filed the lawsuit in 2017 after Jerime Mitchell was shot Nov. 1, 2016, had a pretrial conference Friday with lawyers for the city and for Lucas Jones, a former Cedar Rapids police officer.

The lawyers discussed coronavirus precautions during the trial and how many jurors would be summoned for jury selection beginning April 20.

Jury selection is expected to take a week, followed by about three weeks of testimony.

Only a small number of jurors will be brought into the courtroom for questioning at a time to maintain social distancing.

The lawsuit

The Mitchells, in their lawsuit, assert Jones was negligent in his decision to stop Mitchell's truck and used excessive force in his handling of the stop.

The Mitchells also claim the city was negligent in allowing Jones to continue as a police officer because it knows he has a 'propensity toward violence” as an officer.

Jones and the city have denied the claims.

Mitchell was pulled over by Jones early on Nov. 1, 2016, for a busted license plate light as Mitchell was driving a pickup truck along lower Coe Road NE.

The situation escalated to an altercation, and Jones deployed his police dog, according to video taken from inside Jones' police vehicle.

The two men scuffled on the ground, and then Mitchell got back in his truck to drive away. Jones pursued him and got caught in the open driver's side door.

Jones fired his gun at Mitchell three times before he broke free from the truck and it crashed into parked cars, authorities said. A bullet that hit Mitchell in the neck left him paralyzed.

Police say they later found a pound of marijuana, scales and cash in a backpack inside Mitchell's truck, indicating he was on the verge of making a marijuana deal, Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said on Dec. 6, 2016, when he released the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation report that concluded the shooting was justified. Mitchell was never charged.

Vander Sanden also convened a grand jury to consider charges against Jones. The grand jury cleared the officer of wrongdoing.

The police video, released weeks after the incident, captured images of what happened, but Jones' body microphone wasn't functioning. So audio of most of what he and Mitchell said was not recorded.

Developments

In recent developments, 6th Judicial District Senior Judge Patrick Grady ruled that Mitchell's attorney could take another deposition from Jones after the police department fired Jones in June, saying he had violated police department rules and policies in different case.

Grady also allowed Mitchell's lawyers to take another deposition from police Capt. Craig Furnish, who investigated the Mitchell shooting.

Jones' letter of termination, obtained by The Gazette, showed those violations included lying under oath to internal investigators about an Oct. 30, 2016, traffic stop - just days before the Mitchell traffic stop.

The letter stated one of the violations was that Jones - testifying under oath during a Jan. 16, 2020, deposition - said he 'intentionally turned off his audio recording microphone” during the traffic stop.

The department said Jones lied to Furnish about turning off his microphone in an April 13, 2017, interview, which was conducted as part of the Mitchell investigation.

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