A 34-year-old Jefferson County man pulled over for speeding last year has sued the tiny town of Brookside and several of its former police officers for cruel treatment, denying him a phone call, and tacking multiple charges onto his record without notifying him or his lawyer.
Lawyers for Anyl Pascal this week sued in Jefferson County Circuit Court. It is at least the 15th lawsuit filed against the town, its officials or current and former officers. Pascal was stopped for speeding on Feb. 24, 2021, and charged with multiple misdemeanors.
Pascal’s lawyer, Bill Dawson of Birmingham, argued that Pascal, who has long suffered an anxiety disorder, was denied his medicine and was not allowed to make a phone call for three days.
“His inability to cope with his treatment by Defendants worsened his mental anguish,” the suit claims. “They observed Plaintiff’s distress and took actions to make it worse.”
Pascal was left naked in a cold cell and was told he could not have a blanket because of COVID restrictions, the suit claims. He was at one point cuffed naked onto a metal chair, which was positioned in a hallway in view of passing men and women. He stayed there four to six hours. The suit says Pascal had been exercising in his cell in an attempt to get warm, and was punished because officers said that his behavior was “strange.”
Officials in Brookside, which is just north of Birmingham, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. They have previously declined comment on pending litigation. Attempts to reach former Police Chief Mike Jones and Lt. James “Bo” Savelle III, who are named in the suit, were unsuccessful.
The identity of the arresting officer, known only as “Agent M.W.,” is unclear. Brookside typically signed tickets only with agent initials or codes.
In addition to treatment at the jail, Pascal was abused by the Brookside courts, the suit claims.
When he went to court with a lawyer in April 2021 to stipulate to the claims – essentially to plead guilty in order to appeal to circuit court – Brookside Judge Jim Wooten set fines at $7,210 and required appeal bonds of $14,420. When Pascal and his lawyer went to the Brookside two weeks later, the suit says, the clerk told them the Judge “had found him (Pascal) guilty of nine additional charges after he had left court on 4/8/21.” Wooten is not named in the suit.
Brookside “intentionally made up nine more charges against Plaintiff and Brookside’s judge entered findings of guilty even though neither Plaintiff nor his lawyer knew of the new charges,” the suit argues.
Pascal did appeal to circuit court, where Judge Shanta Craig Owens dismissed the cases when Brookside’s prosecutor did not show up.
Pascal previously spoke to AL.com about his experiences, which he said haunt him.
“I’m kinda nervous all the time, man,” he said in December. “You know, I look unapproachable, but it’s really because I’m stressed and full of anxiety. I try not to leave the house.”
Brookside received national attention after AL.com last January described how it vastly expanded its police force over a two year period,using blacked out vehicles and police dogs to make dubious stops and churn traffic tickets. Brookside revenue from fines and forfeitures rose 640 percent between 2018 and 2020, and came to provide 49 percent of the town’s income.
Jones and much of the force resigned or was forced out, judges threw out many of the pending cases from Brookside and the Alabama Legislature last year passed four bills to prevent another Brookside.
