Giovanni Loyola claims in a lawsuit that police in Alabama handcuffed him so tightly for so long that his hand had to be amputated. It is slated for an April trial. (Courtesy of attorney Jon Goldfarb)
Cops in Alabama handcuffed a man so tightly and for so long that he had to have his left hand amputated, according to a lawsuit that is set to go to trial in federal court in April.
Judge Anna M. Manasco of the Northern District of Alabama wrote a memorandum opinion on a motion for summary judgment, which outlined the incident.
It occurred on Feb. 16, 2020, at a home in Pinson, northeast of Birmingham. Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies received a shots fired call at the home where Giovanni Loyola lived. Deputies Christopher Godber and Ashanti McKinney, named defendants in the lawsuit, arrived and knocked on the door.
Loyola answered and eventually came out to speak with the deputies, where he denied firing any gunshots. Godber claims Loyola was drunk and pushed him, which caused Godber to put Loyola in handcuffs. Loyola stated he was handcuffed for no reason. Godber said Loyola was resisting arrest and trying to get up, so he struck Loyola several times to gain compliance. Godber never turned on his body camera, while McKinney’s camera was partially blocked.
Both parties agree that Godber hadn’t yet double-locked the handcuffs, preventing them from tightening without using a key. Deputies say they are unable to do so when someone is resisting arrest. After Godber placed Loyola into custody, McKinney’s bodycam became unobstructed.
“I ain’t even resisting. Why y’all acting like this,” Loyola said, according to the memo that referenced the body camera.
He later said, “it hurts,” to which Godber responded “well that’s what happens when you f— with the police,” the memo said.
Loyola complained that the handcuffs were too tight, but Godber ignored him, the lawsuit said.
“Deputy Godber refused even to consider loosening the handcuffs. He kept the handcuffs on plaintiff with the same degree of tightness until he had transported him to the Jefferson County jail that night,” the lawsuit, filed in 2021, said.
Manasco wrote in her memo that Loyola told deputies he had injured his left hand in a motorcycle crash, and the handcuffs felt really tight around it. Godber loosened the cuffs and asked Loyola if they were too tight, to which he responded, “no,” Manasco wrote.
“Deputy Godber asked Mr. Loyola, ‘Is that a little bit more comfortable?’ Mr. Loyola said, ‘It’s alright,”” Manasco wrote.
Godber then double-locked the handcuffs. Deputies also say that Loyola never complained about the handcuffs during the ride to the jail or in a medical questionnaire. They took the cuffs off him once they arrived at the jail.
Cops filed a disorderly conduct/disturbing the peace charge, but prosecutors dropped the case.
Four days after his arrest, Loyola went to the hospital with discoloring in his fingers. Doctors partially amputated three fingers due to lack of circulation and eventually took off his entire left hand.
“It’s horrible,” Loyola said in a 2021 interview with AL.com. “I don’t wish that pain on nobody. It’s just really unexpected. I have no words for it.”
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which declined to comment, denied to the court that deputies handcuffing Loyola led to his hand amputation and requested the lawsuit be tossed, which Manasco denied in the March 2023 memorandum opinion.
The trial is set for April 14.
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