JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A federal lawsuit has been filed against the 4 officers from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office who used force to arrest Le'Keian Woods in September of 2023. Thursday afternoon the attorneys representing Woods said the brutal beating their client received while being arrested violated his constitutional rights.
According to court filings, Le'Keian Woods wants at least $100,000 from each of the arresting officers in his case. Thursday's press conference in front of the steps of the federal courthouse was the first time Woods spoke publicly about his arrest that went viral in 2023. Woods was tased twice and hit 17 times in the ribs, face and shoulders.
"I got scared that they were going to shoot me when I seen the situation so I panicked and I ran," said Woods in reference to running from the cops before he was arrested in September 2023.
For the first time since his arrest, the release of his bruised mugshot and publication of police-worn body camera footage, Le'Keian Woods described the pain he still deals with more than a year after his arrest.
"A lot of migraine pain, a lot of eye sight pain," said Woods.
Lawyers for Woods want officers to pay for their client's pain and suffering after they said he was only pulled over for a seatbelt violation.
"Good officers don't do things like that," said Woods' attorney Harry Daniels, "bad officers don't belong wearing the badge, shield or star."
In November 2023 the Department of Justice said JSO's use of force was not a prosecutable violation of federal civil rights law.
When body camera footage of Woods' arrest was released the week after the arrest First Coast News Crime Analyst Mark Baughman said the officers' actions were justified.
"They're not stepping out of policy and procedure in what they're doing trying to get him to neutralize him as a threat and handcuff him," said Baughman in October 2023.
In April 2024, two of the three charges against Woods were dropped. Woods pleaded guilty to resisting an officer without violence and was credited with time served in the Duval County Jail, but charges of drug possession and tampering with evidence were dropped. The dropped charges followed the arrest on unrelated child sexual federal charges of JSO Gang Unit member Officer Josue Garriga, who was one of the officers to arrest Woods.
"I don't believe, just my past history dealing with him of not being truthful," said Daniels when referencing Garriga, "I don't believe he saw anything at the gas station, I believe he saw Le'Keian and the other individuals and he made it up."
"Even in the report, Josue Garriga acknowledges that kneeing somebody in the head is not right," said Daniels, "he said it's accidental, the video speaks for itself, it wasn't accidental, he struck him 4-5 times."
First Coast News reached out to JSO about this lawsuit but were told that the department would not comment due to pending litigation. Currently a court date has not been set in this case.