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A Kansas City police officer who previously killed three people and has twice been accused of excessive force is still employed and facing a new lawsuit over the alleged assault of another woman.
According to the Kansas City Star, Bermeeka Mitchell filed a lawsuit last week accusing Officer Blayne Newton of assault and battery.
The lawsuit stems from an arrest at a Walmart in Platte County on September 11, 2022. Newton, who was off duty but wearing a KCPD uniform and driving a patrol car, arrested Mitchell for alleged trespassing.
According to the lawsuit, Newton “grabbed and twisted both her arms in a forceful manner" and put the heel of his boot on her foot, grinding it down. He also "very tightly" put Mitchell in handcuffs, leaving her with visible marks, according to the suit.
Mitchell was detained in a private room at the store where Newton allegedly told her that she wouldn't face charges for trespassing and resisting arrest if she agreed to “not make a scene” while exiting the property.
No charges were filed against Mitchell. According to the suit, Mitchell didn't resist arrest and Newton didn't have a legal basis to arrest her.
In a May 2023 letter, the Kansas City Police Department’s Office of Community Complaints said disciplinary action was taken against the officer, but it did not provide details on what was done.
“It’s extremely disconcerting that this pattern continues with KCPD and it appears that very little has been done to discourage this behavior,” Mitchell’s attorney, John Picerno, said.
The lawsuit comes after Newton fatally shot two people and injured a third in June 2023. In March 2020, Newton shot a 47-year-old unarmed man. The officer was also accused that year of kneeling on a woman who was nine months pregnant during an arrest. Newton is among the three officers who allegedly beat and tased a teenager in 2019.
“Blayne Newton is a serial killer,” Steve Young, an organizer with Kansas City Law Enforcement Accountability Project, previously said. “There are officers who don’t discharge their weapons their entire careers. He’s now responsible for three deaths and two assaults that we know of.”
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