March 28, 2001
(LOS ANGELES) – A Florida surgeon claims that his hands were permanently injured during a racially motivated arrest in Los Angeles.
Dr. Angelo E. Gousse, 37, a native of Haiti who is a professor at the University of Miami, says he can no longer perform operations.
Gousse was pulled over by officers from the Rampart Division while he was attending a medical conference in Los Angeles in 1999. His lawyers say that he was held for several hours on suspicion of driving a stolen car and then released with no charges.
A notice of claim says that city police officers should not have made a traffic stop on a highway that is under the jurisdiction of the California Highway Patrol and that the officers refused to look at Gousse’s contract for his rental car.