By Jennifer Eberbach
mlive.com
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mich. — A civil rights law firm has filed a federal lawsuit against the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office and three officers for “excessive force” on a 74-year-old man having a stroke.
Detroit-based Marko Law filed the lawsuit against the county Sheriff’s Office, Sergeant Kendall Kretzschmer, Deputy Ryan Tibbetts and Deputy Bryan Uzoni in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division.
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The lawsuit claims deputies used excessive force and permanently injured Gregg Kidney on July 6, 2024 , in violation of his constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The firm is also suing for gross negligence.
Kidney suffered a stroke while driving home from his cottage on Houghton Lake and was pulled over by Tibbetts and Uzoni, according to the suit.
Kidney, a retired Ford Motor Co. engineer from Petersburg in Monroe County, claims he told deputies he was suffering from severe groin pain and high blood pressure. When the deputies asked him to get out of the car, accusing him of being intoxicated, he told them he could not move.
The lawsuit claims Tibbetts and Uzoni pulled Kidney from his vehicle while screaming profanities, threw him to the ground where his head struck a tire, and pinned him there for approximately 30 minutes with one deputy’s foot on his back.
The lawsuit also claims the deputies laughed as Kidney was convulsing and urinating on himself. When an ambulance arrived, Kidney was paralyzed.
The incident was captured on a deputy’s dashcam.
Kidney was transported to Ascension Providence Hospital in Novi, where doctors confirmed he had a stroke.
He sustained injuries that required emergency brain surgery, an extended hospital stay and months of in-patient and at-home care, according to the suit.
He suffered permanent neurological injuries, severe cognitive impairments and chronic kidney disease.
“Mr. Kidney needed to go to the hospital, not jail. At no point did Kidney resist arrest, attempt to flee, or pose a threat to the safety of the officers or others,” attorney Jon Marko said in a statement.
“Every officer has an obligation to recognize a medical emergency and render aid, not throw a 74-year-old man to the pavement and hold him there for thirty minutes while he suffers a massive brain bleed,” Marko said.
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