Deaf man, Jonathan Meister, claims that police investigating a burglary tasered and beat him after confusing his efforts to communicate as gangland gestures.
According to
NY Daily News, a lawsuit alleges that Police needlessly tasered Meister to the ground and then proceeded to beat him into unconsciousness.
The incident took place on February 13th in the Hawthorne area of California, leaving the man with several injuries.
Meister claims that four officers approached his friend's home and discharged electric charges into his body after mistaking sign language for aggressive hand signals.
The lawsuit states that Meister "was removing his own property from the backyard of a friend's home, with the friend's consent" when he was initially confronted by police.
In an interview with
Daily News Meister's lawyer, John Burton, said: "They ended up grabbing his arms and turning him around, and if you do that to a deaf person, it's like gagging them."
"It would be like if I put my hand over your mouth if you try to tell me something."
After the incident, officers took Meister to a hospital where he was charged with assault, a charge that has since been dropped.
The Hawthorne Police Department now face a lawsuit for the violation of Meister's civil rights.
A spokesman for the Hawthorne Police Department
told NBC that officers were trained to deal with incidents "where communication, for various reasons, can sometimes be difficult."
