photo by: Sara Shepherd/Journal-World File Photo

In this file photo from July 3, 2019, Lawrence resident Duc Tran is pictured in downtown Lawrence. Tran says his left elbow was fractured when a Lawrence police officer arrested him in June 2019.

A federal lawsuit filed by a Lawrence skateboarder alleging police brutality was resolved after the parties recently reached a settlement.

The terms were not immediately clear. The Journal-World has reached out to the parties for details.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil signed an order Tuesday to administratively close the case, saying that “On February 21, 2023, the parties notified the Court that they have reached a settlement in this matter.”

The case was scheduled to go to trial on March 13, according to court records.

As the Journal-World reported, Duc M. Tran, 47, filed a federal complaint in July 2021 that alleged Tran “was unconstitutionally beaten, injured, arrested, prosecuted, and eventually exonerated on charges manufactured” by local law enforcement during an arrest in 2019.

The lawsuit alleged excessive force, battery, negligence, failure to train and supervise law enforcement staff and malicious prosecution. The lawsuit also asked the court to award compensation to Tran.

Tran’s suit names former Lawrence police officer Brad Williams as a defendant. It also originally named several other people and entities, including former police Chief Gregory Burns, former Chief Assistant District Attorney Amy McGowan, former Assistant District Attorney LeTiffany Obozele, the Lawrence City Commission, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the Douglas County Commission, but by the end of the lawsuit, those defendants had been removed from the suit, according to court records.

Williams left the force in January 2021 and lost his certification to be a police officer in December 2022 after findings that he engaged in sexually biased policing.

Williams arrested Tran on June 29, 2019, after stopping him for skateboarding in the street in downtown Lawrence. Police said at the time that Tran was “argumentative, refused to provide identification, and attempted several times to walk away,” and that he “shouted at and approached the officer with a skateboard raised overhead in a manner which led the officer to believe the subject was about to inflict immediate bodily harm upon the officer.”

Tran told the Journal-World that he did protest being detained, but he said he was screaming that his arm was broken when Williams twisted his left arm behind his back.

The morning after his arrest, Tran was taken to the hospital for X-rays. He was diagnosed with a fractured elbow. He had scrapes on his legs and shoulder, and he said both shoulders were dislocated during the arrest.

Tran was charged in Douglas County District Court with two class A misdemeanors: interference with law enforcement and assault of a law enforcement officer. He was also charged with failure to obey a lawful order of a police officer or fireman, an unclassified misdemeanor. Charges against him were ultimately dismissed in November 2020.

— Editor’s note: This story has been edited to correct the list of defendants.