Kazimierz Kozina thought he had no one on his side.
Five years ago on September 25, he says police officers dragged him out of his car and pinned him to the ground.
Following this, four cops punched him with closed fists, kicked him and jumped on his back.
Constables Jack Redlick, Phil Leeman, Jason Kemp and Craig Offin left him with injuries so severe that he suffered a broken orbital bone that required surgery as well as spinal cord damage.
There were also some serious facial injuries.
As if this was not enough, one of the officers warned Kozina to end the matter there and then.
“You better not pursue this,” he said.
“You think this was bad? Next time will be worse”
A month later Kozina entered a plea bargain to avoid going to jail.
He admitted that he was involved in some drug dealing.
A witness account
However, two other cops witnessed the ordeal, and spoke out about it.
One of them — Derek Huff, who has now resigned from the police — says he reported the use of excessive force to his supervisors. The former police officer has an unblemished record.
According to his account, officers had Kozina’s knees on his back and kept striking the man with all their might.
“I can still remember the sounds of the contact of the knuckles hitting his face… I’ve seen lots of arrests and I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said.
Huff also revealed that the matter was instigated by Redlick who was infamous for having violent encounters as a hockey defenseman before joining the police.
The whistleblower said Kozina’s condition after the beating was fairly abysmal.
“His face was a great big giant black ball … of blood and bruising,” he commented.
“It looked like he had gotten into a full head-on collision and smashed his head into a steering wheel.”
Huff and his partner Mike Furman decided to tell their Sergeant what they had witnessed – nothing was put on paper.
The supervisor told the pair that they did not worry about the issue any more and the matter had been looked into; the supervisor claimed the four men who the officers believed were perpetrators, were justified in their actions.
After this Huff and Furman was subjected to harassment and name calling by various colleagues.
He said they were called “rats” and were regularly mocked.
On one occasion Furman’s call for backup on the street went unanswered.
Kozina’s lawsuit
The victim has now launched a million-dollar lawsuit.
He states that the brutal treatment he was doled out was covered up and despite Huff’s account he found himself punished simply because he was too scared to take on the men who had bullied him.