Henry County , Ga – A former NFL player who was choked out by a Georgia police officer during an arrest over four years ago has settled his lawsuit against the county.
The incident that led to the lawsuit happened in December 2017. Henry County Officer David Rose responded to a report from a Target that said Desmond Marrow and the driver of another vehicle were aggressively driving though the store’s parking lot.
According to Marrow’s lawyers, the aggressive driving was sparked by two men who called Marrow racial slurs and threw hot coffee into his vehicle. Marrow was following the men in the Target parking lot when a witness called police and told them Marrow was carrying a weapon. Once the cops were on the scene, Marrow cooperated with the officer’s demands, his attorney said.
Rose and another officer handcuffed Marrow and took him to the ground. During the arrest, Rose grabbed Marrow’s neck and choked him while he was on the ground.
The arrest was captured on cellphone video and later Rose could be heard on the police vehicle’s camera admitting to choking Marrow.
Rose was initially cleared of any wrongdoing, but when the cellphone footage was made available, the department reversed their decision and fired Rose.
Marrow filed the civil suit in 2019, saying the encounter impacted his ability to find work and left him with physical and emotional trauma.
“As far as physically, I get just like excruciating headaches, migraines – a toothache and a headache at the same time is like a pain I wouldn’t wish on nobody. I gotta go through that,” he said. “I see Officer Rose, he lay with me often at night, just, he’ll be in my room. I see him. So, it’s like I’ve learned to forgive him, but he’s always there. The nightmares, the traumatic – the flashbacks.”
The settlement amount remains undisclosed, however Marrow’s attorneys said in a statement the settlement “marks a record amount for a non-death, officer-involved use of force case in Henry County.”
