Autistic Worcester Boy Will Get $120K After Police Broke His Arm During Arrest

WORCESTER, MA — A Worcester boy with autism whose elbow was fractured by two Worcester officers while they restrained him during a 2017 confrontation will receive $120,000 in a settlement, according to court records.

The boy's mother sued Worcester police and two officers in September 2020 in federal court. In total, the family has agreed to a $248,000 settlement, with the boy's mother receiving about $35,000 and the rest going to court and attorney fees, according to court records.

According to the lawsuit, the boy's mother, Lindsey Beshai Torres, called Worcester police on Sept. 25, 2017, after her son — who was 10 at the time — threw a Gatorade bottle at her. Torres and her son were in a car outside Gates Lane Elementary School near Webster Square.

"Concerned over her son’s medication issues and behavior, [Beshai Torres] did something she has never done before with [her son], she called 911 to ask for medical assistance," the lawsuit said.

Worcester officers John Alers and Paul McCarthy responded. Torres' son was calm when the officers arrived, the suit said, but at one point threw a bag of potato chips out a window. That's when Alers began pulling the boy out of the car, the suit said.

The officers then threw the boy on the ground, kneeled on him and began to twist his arm in an attempt to restrain him, the suit said. The two officers "tackled [the boy] to the ground and while attempting to restrain him broke his arm requiring emergency hospitalization, surgery, mental turmoil and distrust for the police."

Alers, according to the lawsuit, claimed that he used force because the boy was attempting to run into a dangerous intersection — a claim that was "fictional," according to court documents.

The lawsuit also cited an internal Worcester police investigation, which effectively cleared Alers due to a lack of corroboration, except for the mother's account.

"[The mother] contends that her son was calm. Officer Alers disagrees. Again, there is no video to clearly prove or disprove the memories of [the mother] and officer Alers. We can agree that the police used force that rose to a level 3 on the force continuum. A compliance technique, a 'take down' was utilized. Could [the boy] have been injured during the take-down or handcuffing? Yes. Was there unnecessary force used? We can neither prove nor disprove the allegation with conflicting statements, no witness testimony and no video," the Bureau of Professional Standards said, according to the lawsuit.

Worcester Chief Steven Sargent was also interviewed during the internal investigation, and told the Bureau of Professional Standards be believed the use of force was "appropriate."

"It was a restraint that needed to be done, they felt needed to be done to protect the young man," Sargent said.

The boy's share of the $248,500 settlement will be placed in a trust under the control of his grandmother for use on future needs including paying for education, enrichment programs, transportation, taxes and entertainment. Attorney fees and court costs will amount to about $92,000 out of the full amount, according to court records.

The federal Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into the Worcester Police Department, which has been sued numerous times in federal court. Earlier this year, the city settled a lawsuit brought by a man who went to jail for three years after a Worcester officer illegally searched his phone. The department has paid more than $4 million in settlements since 2010, according to some estimates.