Estate of Alonzo Smith Files Federal Suit Over Death in Special Police Custody

Early on November 1, 2015, Alonzo Smith, a 27-year-old teacher's aide, was inside the Marbury Plaza apartments in the 2300 block of Good Hope Road SE in Southeast Washington. Two special police officers, privately licensed guards working for Blackout Investigation and Security Services, restrained him on the ground. When District police and medics arrived, Smith was unconscious and in handcuffs. He was pronounced dead a short time later.

Smith left behind his mother, Beverly Smith, who pressed for a full account of what happened to her son. On December 14, 2015, the District's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide. The examiner listed the cause as sudden cardiac death complicating acute cocaine toxicity while restrained, with compression of the torso as a contributing factor. The autopsy also noted blunt force injuries, including abrasions and contusions to his head, neck, and torso.

Federal prosecutors investigated but filed no charges. In 2017 the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said there was insufficient evidence to pursue federal civil rights or local charges against the two officers. Prosecutors stated there was no evidence the officers punched, kicked, or struck Smith, and attributed the death to a sudden cardiac incident during the restraint. The officers' names were never released.

Just before the second anniversary of the death, the estate took the matter to federal court. John J. Yannone of Price Benowitz LLP filed Cherry v. District of Columbia in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, with Gerri Cherry suing as personal representative of Smith's estate. The complaint named the two special police officers, Blackout, the company that managed and owned Marbury Plaza, and the District itself. It alleged the officers used excessive force by holding Smith face down with two sets of handcuffs, which kept him from breathing, in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and it pressed wrongful death and survival claims grounded in negligence.

In a September 2018 ruling reported at 330 F. Supp. 3d 216, the court narrowed the case. It granted the District's motion to dismiss the Section 1983 failure-to-train claim, and it dismissed the wrongful death and survival negligence counts against the District after finding the city protected by discretionary function immunity. The excessive force and related claims against the special police officers and their security employer moved forward.