Diabetic bodybuilder sues over arrest

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REDWOOD CITY — The diabetic bodybuilder allegedly beaten while being arrested outside a Redwood City movie theater last year by police officers — who allegedly mistook the man's insulin shock for intoxication — has filed a $5 million suit against the city.

Doug Burns, 44, was the reigning "Mr. Natural Universe" when police allegedly pepper-sprayed him in the face, threw him on the ground and struck him in the ribs after he walked outside of the theater in a daze induced by low blood sugar.

The lawsuit that cites Redwood City, its police department and five police officers, charges assault and battery, false arrest, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

"How would you feel if you got out of a movie theater, and all of a sudden you go into a diabetic coma and you get beat up for it?" the plaintiff's attorney, Don Galine, said Monday.

"The ideal thing would have been to treat him as a disabled person — not to shove him and throw him to the ground," he said.

Burns filed a claim against the city in July, charging that the incident has cost him $2 million in "economic damages" and $3 million in "noneconomic" damages.

The city rejected the claim one month later.

Burns, of Redwood City, said Monday that the arrest, which left his face cut and bruised, has also caused permanent nerve damage to his right side. The bodybuilder said he lost his Mr. Natural Universe title because he was unable to train competitively after the incident.

Burns once earned his living as a personal trainer, but his injuries have permanently damaged his training career and have cost him at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost business opportunities in the past year, he said.

A surgeon has told the bodybuilder that the nerve damage — the result of police jamming his hands behind his back, Burns said — cannot be treated safely with surgery. The best the bodybuilder can hope for is for the pain to subside over time.

But nearly a year after the incident, Burns said he can't even shake hands without "the pain bothering the heck out of me."

The bodybuilder said the injury has even affected his identity as a person, which has been linked to bodybuilding since he was 11 years old.

Burns, who weighed only 53 pounds at 11, said he was inspired to try bodybuilding after he found a picture of Samson in a Bible picture-book holding a lion in a headlock.

In his hometown of Pass Christian, Miss., Burns said he scavenged local steelyards and construction sites for spare pulleys, steel plates and cement to replicate a gym in the backyard.

Burns suffers from Type I diabetes — the most severe form of the disease that affects only 6 percent of all diabetics — and cannot produce his own insulin. He has dealt with the past year by raising awareness of the disease.

Asked how he has handled the past year's setbacks, Burns said, "You lean on hope and a refusal to quit. ... It's all you can do."

Burns, who serves on the board of the Silicon Valley branch of the American Diabetes Association, said he felt heartened that the city's police department expressed interest in working with the ADA to better train its officers to distinguish between intoxication and a diabetes-related medical emergency.

But the serious nerve damage he claims he suffered prompted the bodybuilder to consider a suit against the city. Burns doesn't like the notion that his suit could cost taxpayers millions, he said, but his conversations with businessmen and physicians influenced his decision to file suit.

"They told me, 'You can't tell (the city) that they did a bad thing. Money is the only wake-up call that affects a city entity,'" Burns said. "The doctors told me, 'This (kind of incident) happens more than you think, and you've got a responsibility to stand up.'"

The bodybuilder had gone to the movies at a downtown Redwood City theater April 1, but a theater security guard kicked him out after the guard reportedly mistook Burns' insulin shock for intoxication. Police found Burns disoriented on the ground outside the theater.

Two officers intervened when Burns tried to re-enter the theater by blocking his path, according to police reports. The bodybuilder "assumed a fighting stance," and three more officers were called in to subdue him, police said.

Burns was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, but the county district attorney's office dropped the charges one month after the incident, concluding that the bodybuilder was not aware of what he was doing at the time.

City officials say that two officers were also injured during the arrest, including one officer who suffered a shoulder injury and another officer who cut his finger during the altercation.

At least one city councilman has suggested that the city should investigate whether Burns can be held liable for the officers' injuries.

Malcolm Smith, a spokesman for the city manager's office, said Monday he didn't know whether the city would still pursue legal action. The city attorney was not available Monday to respond to the suit, and Smith declined comment, saying he had not yet reviewed the complaint filed last week.

A civil suit in federal court claiming that seven Redwood City police officers used excessive force during the violent 2002 arrest of a man who died in police custody concluded last year with a jury's verdict that police acted properly.

Diabetic bodybuilder sues over arrest - Inside Bay Area

[Big Guns]

interesting......

[wala]

Mofos.

I hope he wins, but he wont. I'd hate to be left in a position where I can no longer workout and do the thing in life that makes me feel good!

[hjayss]

Good for him....I always fear that that will happen to me and they not know that I am a diebetic...my fear was being robbed but damn he rich now...

[britishbulld0g]

Why would they pepper spray and beat someone just for being in an intoxicated state?

I'd get beaten every weekend if the police rolled like that where I live