East St. Louis cop, city sued by man claiming he was unlawfully beaten

Carlos Roberson filed a complaint against East St. Louis police officer Keith Randolph and the city of East St. Louis claiming he was beaten and jailed on false charges.

Roberson is seeking in excess of $200,000 from the defendants, according to a suit filed March 17 in St. Clair County Circuit Court.

He claims that on April 1, 2007, he got into a non-physical altercation with his wife, who then called police. She asked him to leave and he did so, the complaint states.

"Plaintiff returned hours later," the complaint states. "Plaintiff observed that an East St. Louis Police car (was) parked in the vicinity. Not wanting to get involved with the police, plaintiff returned to his vehicle.

"Officer Randolph noticed the plaintiff and approached the vehicle. He requested that the plaintiff exit the vehicle. Plaintiff complied."

Roberson claims that Randolph began to beat him with a metal wand, without provocation.

"The plaintiff did not resist in any way and that defendant Randolph indicated that he was going to teach him a lesson for trying to hide from him," the complaint states.

Roberson claims that he was charged with trespassing. He also claims that in order to justify the charges as well as the unlawful beating, Randolph charged him with resisting a peace officer.

He claims the acts of the defendant constituted grossly excessive force and an illegal seizure in violation of his Eighth and Fourth Amendment rights.

He also claims Randolph fabricated a report "containing numerous mistruths and falsehoods."

Roberson is represented by Jarrod P. Beasley of the Kuehn Law Firm in Belleville.