Displaced Ukrainian children will receive soccer balls that don't pop. Photo credit: Getty Images.
PROVO – A Provo man has filed a legal claim against the city of Provo and its police department after he was arrested during a youth soccer game.
Nery Rodriguez says a woman called the police last September after claiming she had reserved the city-owned field where Rodriguez was refereeing and asked him to leave. Rodriguez claims the officer ordered him off the field without doing an investigation and arrested him even after he produced paperwork showing he had reserved the spot.
Rodriguez’s attorney Michael Teter claims the officer aggressively shoved him off the field then tripped him on the sidewalk near his police car, causing Rodriguez to fall and knocking him unconscious.
“He continues to suffer emotionally but also physically. He cannot work. He cannot help his family. He cannot even give care to his two-year-old daughter…[who] has down syndrome,” Teter says.
The arresting officer and others who eventually responded are accused of not calling an ambulance while Rodriguez lay unconscious.
Teter claims there is cell phone video of the incident.
The Provo Police Department told KSL News Radio that they cannot respond until they see a lawsuit, which hasn’t been filed yet.