DUNBAR, W.Va. (WCHS) — As the city of Dunbar agrees to settle another police brutality lawsuit, this time for half a million dollars, city officials maintain officers did nothing wrong. Others claim Dunbar’s police department exhibit a pattern of civil rights violations.
A $500,000 settlement has been reached after Anthony Reese accused officers of using excessive force against him outside the Dunbar police station in 2023.
The agreement comes after the city agreed to pay $2 million in the death of Michael Scott Jr. who was hurt while in police custody.
Officer Zachary Winters was named in both lawsuits.
“Winters was involved in this. You could hear him on the body cams on the officers that came out, then later on his own body cam at the hospital, almost bragging about getting some shots in,” said Reese’s lawyer Jesse Forbes. “He refused, as a police officer, in a police uniform, refused to answer any questions. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.”
While these civil lawsuits settlements did not involve any admission of wrongdoing, settlements are in the range of $3 million and another excessive force suit is pending.
“It’s pattern and practice of bad conduct by the city of Dunbar,” Reese’s lawyer Dante’ diTrapano told Eyewitness News. “It led to us being able to sort of drive a claim up to the half-a-million dollar range for really a guy who got beat pretty bad. There were no broken bones and there were no stitches. It really was a settlement that Dunbar had to pay that amount of money because of their prior conduct, in our opinion.”
The city has made changes, but it’s unclear if law enforcement problems persist.
“There’s a new chief. Dunbar has made strides in recent months that seem to be getting better, but we’ve still got some of the same officers that are involved in these cases,” Forbes said. “There are a lot of questions about what they’ve done or what they intend to do for patterns and practices. If you’re a citizen of Dunbar, this is like, ‘Here we go again.”
Eyewitness News has reached out to Dunbar’s mayor and police chief for comment, but have not heard back.
