Palo Alto Attorneys Push Excessive Force Suit Dismissal: Report

PALO ALTO, CA –

Attorneys representing the City of Palo Alto have moved to dismiss an excessive force lawsuit over a violent 2019 arrest, Palo Alto Weekly reports.

Julio Arevalo filed suit after suffering a shattered orbital bone when police Agent Thomas DeStefano flipped him onto the ground in front of Happy Donuts July 10 of last year.

Video footage of the incident captured by surveillance cameras was released by the Palo Alto Police Department in July.

City attorneys are asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to dismiss the case on the basis of 199-page claim filed by his attorney being too sarcastic and too long, the report said.

The city attorneys argued in their Sept. 8 filing that the claim violates a Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures, which calls for a concise explanation of the basis for the lawsuit, the report said.

Read more at Palo Alto Weekly.