Jury awards man $8.3 million in excessive force case

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina jury has ordered three law enforcement officials to pay $8.3 million for violating a man's civil rights when they beat and shot him while he was driving on his own property six years ago.

WRAL-TV reports the award is believed to be the largest excessive force verdict in a civil rights case in the state's history.

Michael Morgan said three Wake County sheriff's deputies improperly beat him and shot him during a traffic stop while he was unloading brush on an empty field he owned. Police said Morgan dragged a sheriff's deputy along the side of his pickup truck before he was shot.

Morgan spent four months in jail on charges of assaulting a police officer. He was acquitted over questions about the veracity of the deputies' accounts.