Complaining About Police Lights Leads to Beating, Settlement

The cops flipped out after being asked not to shine lights into a house

A federal jury has awarded a Madison resident more than $93,000 in a lawsuit against three city police officers for excessive force and for violating his constitutional rights.

The Clarion-Ledger reports the verdict favoring Steve C. Thornton was handed down Aug. 3.

Thornton, an attorney, says the officers used pepper spray and slammed him to the ground in his garage in June 2008 after he complained about the lights of police cars shining into the back of his house next to an intersection where police catch speeders. He said he filed the case in federal court in 2009.