KCPD settles another lawsuit involving same police officer

by: Dave D'Marko

Posted: Dec 17, 2024 / 09:04 PM CST ,Updated: Dec 18, 2024 / 02:48 PM CST

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas City Police have settled another lawsuit involving the same officer.

Kansas City Police Officer Blayne Newton has been sued and investigated for killing 3 people in two different incidents over the past four years. He’s also been the subject of multiple internal investigations into arrests involving alleged excessive force.

In this latest lawsuit a Lansing, Kansas woman will be awarded $65,000 after accusing Newton of assault, battery and false imprisonment. The plaintiff, who was a Walmart shopper when this occurred in 2022, says she was simply trying to record an arrest.

Attorney John Picerno says Bermeeka Mitchell didn’t initially plan to sue KCPD Officer Blayne Newton for what transpired in a Platte County Walmart. But then she’d learn more about the officer’s alleged history the next summer.

That’s when he shot two people and injured a teen as he came upon someone in a van pointing a gun at another vehicle near 31st Street and Van Brunt.

It was the same officer that sparked protest in 2020 when he shot and killed Donnie Sanders. Investigators later said Sanders was not armed during the incident. Newton was not charged in the case.

Later the same year he was captured on video putting his knee on a pregnant woman’s back.

“You just think of the amount of officers that go their entire career and don’t discharge their firearm and the number of officers who go their entire career who don’t kill anyone. Here you have an officer who has admittedly shot and killed 3 people,” Picerno said.

The situation at the Platte County Walmart, was less life-altering but Picerno says it still should never have happened and left the woman with a pinched nerve and traumatized.

It started when Mitchell witnessed an arrest in the parking lot.

“There was a lot of commotion, a lot of noise. She didn’t think what was happening was right, so she began to videotape what was going on with her cell phone,” Picerno explained.

She proceeded to livestream as she entered Walmart. That’s when someone in plain clothes who she says she had no idea was associated with the store told her to stop. When she didn’t Officer Newton escorted her to the loss-prevention office.

“He then puts her in a non-approved KCPD restraint maneuver with his hand and arm under her arm and shoulder in a twisting motion and then escorts her through the store, through the vestibule and to the loss prevention office.”

The Office of Community Complaints recommended an excessive use of force complaint be sustained. The same memo said the officer was disciplined. However asked about the discipline by FOX4, KCPD said discipline isn’t public under Missouri state statute.

Newton was also one of three officers who used a taser and repeatedly punched a teenager in 2019, which resulted in a $325,000 payout from KCPD.

“I think its important any time a lawsuit is settled with law enforcement. Somebody has to police the police and apparently its not KCPD who is going to police their own employees,” Picerno said.

Newton still has pending wrongful death lawsuits in those other two cases. According to KCPD, he is currently assigned to the Patrol Bureau.