The civil case involving an Army Lieutenant suing over his treatment during a traffic stop in Windsor will go to trial on March 28, 2022.
Lt. Caron Nazario is suing the officers who pulled him over in December 2020. Nazario along with his attorneys and attorneys for the officers appeared in Norfolk federal court to set the trial date during a court hearing on Tuesday morning.
Video of the incident brought national scrutiny to the small town. Officer Joe Guiterrez was fired after the video went viral. The other officer, Daniel Crocker, remains on the force.
Nazario has kept quiet following the lawsuit. His attorney says he is still struggling with what happened.
“I think he’s having a hard time adjusting to the idea that he was in uniform and he was attacked by police,” said Jonathan Arthur, Nazario’s attorney.
Now that a trial date is set Arthur says discovery can happen, which he says will bring more of the evidence to light.
“We have a really good idea of what led up to the incident because there are 30 to 45 minutes of body-worn camera footage and audio recordings of what occurred, so this will help us shed some light on what happened afterward,” said Arthur.
Attorneys for the officers didn’t comment after the hearing.
The jury trial will last for five days. The judge said there would be a settlement hearing ahead of it to see if both sides can work something out. Arthur said he wasn’t ruling that out, but says the case is important to set precedent “that it is absolutely inappropriate to pepper spray people when they’re not presenting any threat to you.”
