Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Litigation associate Paul Brzyski, working with Litigation partner Daniel N. Lerman and associates Hannah Kanter and Ayla Lima, argued and won a partial reversal in a pro bono Section 1983 case. Paul represented Karim Codrington, the victim of an unlawful traffic stop, who brought a Section 1983 claim alleging that the arresting officers fabricated evidence by planting marijuana and methamphetamine on him. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the officers.
Paul took on the appeal and argued the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Section 1983 claims are notoriously difficult for plaintiffs – and fabrication-of-evidence claims are even harder, still. Yet, Paul argued that there was abundant evidence of suspicious police conduct that supported Mr. Codrington's fabrication-of-evidence claim – including evidence that the traffic stop was pretextual, that the officer's body-cam footage failed to capture critical moments during the stop, and that officers submitted an evidence photo that contained a gun that did not even belong to Mr. Codrington. The Sixth Circuit agreed and reversed the district court's decision granting summary judgment for the defendants – a rare victory for a plaintiff in a Section 1983 appeal.
The case marks another in a long line of pro bono victories for the firm. Most recently, the firm won a life-changing $1 million judgment for Tyrone Jones, a Baltimore man wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life for conspiracy to commit murder. Litigation associate Mark H. Russell, along with Litigation partner Ralph C. Mayrell, took up on the matter on appeal after an administrative judge rejected Mr. Jones's claim on technical grounds. After briefing the appeal, Ralph and Mark helped persuade the Maryland legislature fix the flaw in the law that had stood in Mr. Jones's way, and then, with Maryland co-counsel, proved Mr. Jones's innocence at a two-day trial, presenting alibi witnesses, gunshot residue and eyewitness identification experts, and evidence identifying the actual killer.