YUBA CITY, Calif. — A 65-year-old man who claims to have been permanently paralyzed after an incident with Yuba City police announced during a news conference Wednesday that he filed a lawsuit against the police department for his injuries.
Moseley Collins, Greg Gross' attorney, said Gross now has quadriplegia from his experience with police on April 12, 2020, which they say makes it unable for him to walk and requires nursing care throughout the day for the rest of his life.
"It's a horrible existence to what I have now," Gross said. "I can't go anywhere. I can't afford to hire people to take me places so basically stuck."
Collins released bodycam footage of what appears to be two separate moments where Gross is interacting with police officers. Collins said Gross was accused by law enforcement of causing a one-mile-per-hour crash.
The video shows one of the officer's bodycam forced Gross to the ground as he screamed, asking officers what they were doing. One officer said, "pain compliance when you stop resisting."
The video doesn’t show the officer bringing Gross to the ground, which is the moment Collins claims is what caused Gross' injuries. Gross could be heard saying, "I can't feel my legs.”
"I should tell you that Greg and I are not against police," Collins said during the news conference. "We think we need police, but we're against police brutality."
The officer who brought Gross to the ground explained his version of events to a hospital worker.
"When I took him, I had him in an armbar, so I swept his feet and tried to get him to land on his knees," the officer could be heard saying.
The officer told the hospital worker that he didn't just "plank him out" because that would have been wrong.
Yuba City police said in a statement that while are aware of a pending lawsuit, they, or the city, have not received the complaint. They couldn't comment on the lawsuit itself as of publication.
Police said Joshua Jackson, the officer involved in the alleged incident, has not been employed with the department since February 22, 2021.
Editor's note: The Yuba City Police Department sent a statement to ABC10 on Thursday. The email was initially missed.
