Bolingbrook Cops Broke Teen's Neck After False Arrest: Lawsuit

Bolingbrook cops broke a teenager’s neck after falsely arresting him, according to a lawsuit filed in Will County court.

Julio Guzman was 18 when Bolingbrook police officers broke a vertebrae in his neck in December 2013, the lawsuit said.

On the day his neck was broken, Guzman was at his job when he got a call from his pregnant girlfriend, Ariel Reyes, the suit said. Guzman was reportedly living at the time with Reyes and her parents at their home on Feather Sound Drive.

Reyes told Guzman she had just been in a physical fight with her mother, and that her parents were kicking her and throwing her belongings onto the lawn, the suit said. She reportedly told Guzman he needed to come over immediately with his truck, pick her up and gather her things.

About the same time, Reyes’ father called 911 but told dispatchers the “altercation was over and Ariel was calm now,” the lawsuit said.

After Guzman got to the house, officers Jason Mitchem and Marjorie Higens reportedly arrived at the Reyes residence, and Higens ordered Guzman to stop loading his truck. After a verbal dispute, Guzman was threatened with arrest, the suit said.

Guzman put out his wrists to be handcuffed, the suit said, and Mitchem hit him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Mitchem and Higens then allegedly jumped on top of him and beat him where he lay, the suit said.

When a screaming Reyes tried to video record the beating with her phone, she also was threatened with arrest, according to the lawsuit.

Two other, unidentified police officers roughed Guzman up at the police station, the lawsuit said.

Guzman was booked into the Will County jail on a felony charge of aggravated battery and misdemeanor resisting police. Prosecutors decided to charge him only with misdemeanor battery. Guzman was acquitted of the charge at a September trial.

Guzman named Mitchem, Higens, the two unidentified officers and the Village of Bolingbrook as defendants in his lawsuit.

Earlier this year, an officer with the Illinois Department of Corrections sued five Bolingbrook cops and the village, accusing them of racism and alleging that they repeatedly arrested him on false charges and called his bosses at Stateville prison numerous times in hopes of getting him fired. Correctional Officer Henry Godfrey filed his lawsuit in federal court.

And just last month, a Bolingbrook family claimed the cops illegally searched their home after breaking up a Christmas morning fight, then erased a cell phone video of their allegedly illicit doings. The matriarch of the family, 48-year-old Rosa Espinoza, along with her two daughters — Erika, 21, and Natalie, 14 — sued seven Bolingbrook police officers, also in federal court.