SAN ANTONIO — Mathias Ometu, the Black San Antonio man who was arrested by police searching for an assault suspect last year even after determining he wasn't who they were searching for, has filed a lawsuit against the arresting officers in a Bexar County district court.
The suit, which also names San Antonio Police Chief William McManus as a plaintiff, alleges that SAPD violated his Constitutional rights by arresting him without probable cause and allegedly using excessive use of force in the August 25 incident. On that afternoon, Officers Devin Day and Richard Serna were looking for a man who allegedly punched a woman at a local apartment complex pulled up to Ometu as he was jogging, and put him in handcuffs when he refused to give his name or date of birth.
Ometu later said he resisted when officers tried to force him into the patrol car to bring him to the victim, leading to a struggle in which, according to the lawsuit, the officers "yanked the plaintiff's neck" and "slammed (Ometu) into the police vehicle," causing injury.
Ometu was later charged with assaulting the officers. The lawsuit decries them as "bogus charges" and "a pretext to cover-up their crimes and atrocities."
The incident led to Mayor Ron Nirenberg calling for "a full accounting" of the incident. Neither Day nor Serna is believed to have been punished in the aftermath of the incident.
Ometu was released from jail two days after his arrest, and Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales dismissed the charges against him soon after, at the request of the officers. Despite that, Ometu told KENS 5 later in the year that he was still working to overcome the incident and move on.
In a statement to KENS 5, City of San Antonio officials said McManus "conducted a review of the incident and found that the officers acted appropriately. We will seek a speedy resolution of this matter in the courts."