After two days of arguments and nearly five hours of deliberation, a Tulsa federal jury has determined that two Tulsa police officers operated within the law and did not violate a man’s civil rights, as alleged in a lawsuit.
The lawsuit by Brian Lumpkin, 24, alleged that Officers James Bohanon and Kevin Warne had violated his rights in October 2010 by pulling over his car, putting him in handcuffs, searching his car and making him do pushups without probable cause.
Lumpkin has two felony convictions -- for drug and weapons possession.
The four-man, four-woman jury began deliberating just after noon Tuesday and returned a verdict in the officers’ favor about 5:15 p.m.
Gerald Bender, the city of Tulsa’s Litigation Division manager, said it was a hard-fought case that was well-argued by Lumpkin’s attorneys, Kevin Adams and Robert Burton.
“This just demonstrates why this system is the best justice system in the world,” he said.
Bender and Brandon Burris, both attorneys for the city, defended Bohanon and Warne.
The case highlighted conflicting versions of the events of Oct. 25, 2010, when Lumpkin left a house that Warne and Bohanon had been investigating.
Lumpkin’s version included an offer from Bohanon of either doing pushups, getting a ticket or going to jail.
Bohanon’s version was that he and Lumpkin had a friendly exchange that resulted in Lumpkin’s challenging Bohanon to do pushups.
Lumpkin went first, and after he finished, he said, “Now you,” according to Bohanon.
“Naw, man. I’m good,” Bohanon said he replied, explaining that he thought he had played a joke on Lumpkin.
“The banter back and forth was very jovial,” Bohanon said.
The versions of events were under further scrutiny in court because of a recording of radio conversation between Bohanon and Warne, who was backing up Bohanon from several hundred feet away.
“I imagine we’ll just go through the motions,” Bohanon told Warne over the radio recording played in court. “I’m going to shake down the car real quick and just cut him loose if we don’t find anything.”
Then Warne asked Bohanon if he should call him “Drill Instructor Bohanon.”
“Did you see that?” Bohanon asked while laughing. “I told him, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to give me some pushups if you want to not get any tickets.’?”
Bohanon, a Tulsa police officer for more than 11 years, has been a defendant in three other lawsuits that alleged wrongful searches and other complaints.
One of those three lawsuits was dismissed, and the two others were settled by the city — $23,000 was paid in a 2007 case and $10,000 was paid in a 2012 case.
Bohanon was one of several defendants in both cases.
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