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Nov 15, 2007 10:28 pm US/Central
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Man Sues Markham Police For Alleged Gay-Bashing
Suburban Man Says He Was Handcuffed To A Chair And Taunted
MARKHAM, Ill. (CBS) ―
Disturbing allegations of gay-bashing were brought against the Markham police. A suburban man says officers burst into his home like a lynch mob.
CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports 47-year-old Frankie Brown remembers vividly the humiliation of May 31, 2007. That's the night he says Markham police officers raided his home looking for drugs and ended up cuffing him to a chair in his front doorway and ridiculing him for being gay and HIV-positive.
"All my neighbors were standing around," Brown said. "They kept asking, 'why you all doin' him like this?"
Brown said the officers called him a derogatory name and told his neighbors they should know who they're living next to.
Brown said he was cuffed to a chair and under a spotlight for more than two hours. Police did have a warrant to enter his house, and Brown later spent 17 hours in jail, but was never charged with any crime. Now, Brown and his lawyer are suing the Markham Police Department for violating his civil rights.
"What happened to Mr. Brown was a hate crime motivated by prejudice against homosexuality," said Brown's attorney, Jon Loevy.
Neighbor Jeffrey Nowden agrees. He remembers the incident and still shakes his head at the officers' conduct.
"They was making all kinds of homosexual innuendoes and jokes about him," Nowden said. "They had a picture of his family up there and they were making all kind of remarks. It was just sad."
Police had a warrant to search Brown's house for drugs. Loevy said they never found anything illegal, adding Brown has no prior drug history. So he questions why police were there in the first place.
As of 10 p.m. Thursday, no one at the Markham Police Station was available to answer any questions and the chief did not return a call for comment.
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