Man Says Worcester Police Assaulted Him, Used Racist Remark

WORCESTER, MA — A Worcester man on Tuesday sued the city and police department, claiming he was assaulted by police officers and falsely charged after filming a 2018 prostitution sting in the Main South neighborhood.

Sylvester Agyeah is suing City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. and nine police officers and detectives. He is seeking damages, alleging he was injured and lost his job as an Uber driver. A spokesperson for Augustus Jr. declined comment on the allegations because they are part of pending litigation.

Agyeah said he was driving along Louden Street near Main Street in April 2018 when a group of drivers pulled in front of him. A group of men — later determined to be plainclothes police officers — got out of the cars and pulled a man out of a vehicle, according to the suit. Agyeah said he took out his cell phone and began filming, believing the man was the victim of a crime. The man was actually being arrested on a charge of soliciting an undercover officer during a prostitution bust, according to the suit.

When the officers saw Agyeah filming, they "assaulted him, dragged him from his vehicle, clamped handcuffs on him tightly enough to draw blood and cause nerve damage, confiscated his phone, and tried to frame him on a series of baseless criminal charges," according to the suit.

Agyeah, who is from Ghana, said one officer asked him why he was filming. Agyeah said it was for his own safety and claimed the officer responded, "Is this how you f------ monkeys treat your police officers?"

Agyeah was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and interfering with a police officer. During booking, Agyeah told police he defecated on himself because of "the way [the officers] treat me."

The suit claims several officers were not truthful in court proceedings, claiming Agyeah was yelling at police from his car, and that officers had their badges out while making the arrest. All charges except the resisting arrest count were dropped, according to court records.

Agyeah is being represented by Worcester civil rights attorney Hector Pineiro, who has previously accused Worcester police officers of misconduct and sued the police department recently. Pineiro said Agyeah was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the officers' behavior underscores a pattern in the police department.

"We're not talking about isolated incidents, this is a widespread program," Pineiro said Wednesday. "It's only emerging now because of the existence of tapes, video surveillance private cameras, that are equalizing the playing field, which has always been tilted in the favor of the police."

Pineiro highlighted Agyeah's claim of racist language used by one officer. Worcester police Chief Steven Sargent was criticized over the summer after he said he wasn't aware of any racism in the department. That statement was also contradicted by a recent Worcester Telegram report.

Agyeah's lawsuit was the fourth filed against Worcester police in the last 13 months alleging misconduct.

In January, Carlos Alvarez sued the city and police Capt. Michael McKiernan, alleging McKiernan illegally searched Alvarez's phone, leading to him spending more than 1,000 days in jail before the case was dropped.

In August, Christopher Ayala-Melendez sued over his treatment during a melee at the downtown beer garden in October 2019. And in September, a mother sued after two officers restrained her 10-year-old autistic son by kneeling on his neck and twisting his arm in 2017, according to court records.