Robert “Bobby” DiCello was recently interviewed by Mike Papantonio of America’s Lawyer about Arnold Black’s verdict against the City of East Cleveland. Black, who was represented by Bobby DiCello and Justin Hawal of DiCello Levitt, was beaten by East Cleveland police and locked in a storage closet for several days following his arrest in 2012.
Black recently was awarded $50 million by a Cuyahoga County jury. The case brought to light a pattern and practice of abuse, manipulation, and coercion within the East Cleveland police department which is adding to the ongoing national conversation about policing tactics and reform.
From his interview, DiCello said:
“What we found with the city of East Cleveland was a policy that dated back decades of using violence against ordinary people who were stopped at traffic stops. Who were standing on street corners, who were playing cards on the
sidewalk. Anyone who came into contact with an East Cleveland Police officer could expect…to be beaten or hit or yelled at or screamed at or pushed down.
Some of the testimony we got that was unbelievable was that even if they found no contraband on someone that was just, say on the sidewalk in the middle of winter, they would strip that person down completely of all their clothes in the snow.”
To watch DiCello’s full interview, click here.