A former player in the NBA’s minor league alleged in a lawsuit that a California police officer’s baton strikes fractured his knee in three places, ending his professional basketball career.
Dakarai Allen last week sued the city of Elk Grove and four officers with the Elk Grove Police Department over the October 2022 incident. Officers had been called to investigate Allen, who was driving home after consuming alcohol and had pulled over and parked on a road close to his home, according to the lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District Court of California.
When officers found Allen unconscious in his car, they pulled him out, attempted to handcuff him and forced him to the ground, the lawsuit alleged. As officers pinned Allen to the ground, one struck Allen’s knee twice with a baton, according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by the Sacramento Bee.
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Allen, 29, told The Washington Post that the injury derailed ambitions of moving overseas to continue his professional basketball career in Europe or New Zealand.
“I’ve never had a knee injury in 20 years of playing basketball,” Allen said. “I get in to police custody for under two minutes, and now my career is gone. So it’s been really tough.”
The Elk Grove Police Department declined to comment on ongoing litigation. The City of Elk Grove did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The lawsuit did not include all the officers’ full names.
Allen, who played college basketball at San Diego State, spent five seasons in the NBA’s developmental G League after graduating in 2017. Between 2021 and 2022, he played for the G League Ignite, a team based at the time in Walnut Creek, Calif.
On the evening of Oct. 14, 2022, Allen was returning home from a wine-tasting event, he said. He pulled over and parked by a neighbor’s house upon “recognizing that he should not be driving” and fell asleep in his car, according to the lawsuit. His neighbors mistook him for a shooting victim and called the police, the lawsuit states.
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Officers who responded found Allen unconscious and said that he appeared drunk, according to body-camera footage of the incident. The officers pulled Allen out of the car, pressed him against the car and attempted to handcuff him, video shows. Allen can be heard telling the officers to “relax” while the officers told Allen to stop tensing and resisting. The officers then forced Allen to the ground, according to the video, which is muted as Allen is brought down.
One of the officers who forced Allen to the ground tripped on Allen’s legs and fell with him, the lawsuit states. Video shows that officer striking Allen twice in his legs with a baton while Allen was held down by other officers.
The officers continued to hold Allen on the ground for several minutes, then placed him in a full-body restraint that immobilized his arms and legs, video shows. The restraint caused further pain to Allen’s knee, according to the lawsuit. The officers took Allen to a Sacramento hospital and then a jail, according to the lawsuit.
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Video shows the officers discussing the arrest after Allen is taken into custody. The officers, who repeatedly remark on Allen’s height and size, accused Allen of tensing and resisting throughout the incident. The officer who struck Allen can be heard saying to a colleague, “all right, baton’s coming out, to heck with this,” when describing the arrest.
The officers said they were not injured during the arrest.
John Burris, Allen’s attorney, said the officers “overreacted and became overly aggressive when they didn’t have to be.”
“[Allen] wasn’t in any way causing any harm to anyone,” Burris said.
Allen said he was charged with driving under the influence and had his license reinstated after completing a three-month education program.
The fractures in his right knee prevented Allen, once an agile defender, from moving laterally on the court without pain, he said. Allen, who said he’d previously signed six-figure contracts in the NBA G League, did not sign with another NBA G League team in 2022 and abandoned plans to contact international teams. He has not played professional basketball since.
“It’s unfair,” Allen said. “I can’t really find the words to describe the pain.”
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