Sorry people I thought that the original was posted here at one time - cannot find it
By DAVID SOMMER The Tampa Tribune
NEW PORT RICHEY - A Holiday man serving prison time for drug trafficking and other crimes wants his bail bondsman to pay more than $250,000 for injuries suffered after he failed to show up in court.
Christopher Charles Milland's larynx was crushed when he was manhandled for no apparent reason after the bondsman found him drinking in a U.S. 19 bar four days after he missed a court date, according to a lawsuit filed by a Tampa attorney.
Milland now breathes through a tracheotomy tube and will require surgery to rebuild his larynx in order to breathe normally, the lawsuit against A-Plus Bail Bonds and Investigations Inc. states.
The complaint also names A-Plus president James A. McFadden Sr. and A-Plus bail bondsman Michael Sabean as defendants. Neither McFadden nor the lawyer who filed the lawsuit, Ronald J. Kurpiers II, returned repeated calls for comment on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to the lawsuit, which alleges assault and battery, Milland was drinking at D's Sports Bar in Holiday on April 7, 2006, when McFadden and Sabean showed up to arrest him for failing to appear in court.
Milland offered no resistance as he was handcuffed, the lawsuit states. However, McFadden put him in a chokehold and "violently threw plaintiff to the floor smashing the plaintiff's face," the lawsuit states.
McFadden continued the chokehold to the point that Milland lost consciousness and went into a seizure, the complaint says. When bar patrons tried to get McFadden to stop, Sabean told witnesses, "
'We can do what we want with him, we own him,'
" the lawsuit states.
"At this point in time, some bar patron called 911 and medical personnel arrived on the scene and transported the plaintiff to medical facilities for emergency treatment to save his life," the suit says.
According to state Department of Corrections records, Milland is serving five concurrent five-year prison terms on charges of amphetamine trafficking and possession of cocaine, marijuana and other controlled substances out of Alachua County.
He also is serving three concurrent 366 day sentences out of Pinellas County on charges of resisting an officer with violence on Dec. 21, 2005; failing to appear in court on April 3, 2006; and fleeing and eluding an officer in a June 9, 2006, incident, records state.
Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or
dsommer@tampatrib.com.
up.
