A jury in U.S. District Court in Portland late Wednesday found in favor of a Gorham man who claimed Gorham police officer Michael Coffin had used excessive force while arresting him in 2006.

The jury found that officers Dean Hannon, Benjamin Moreland and Sgt. Mike Nault did not intentionally use excessive force against Johnson. The jury found that Coffin and Hannon committed assault and battery, and the two officers were not entitled to immunity under state law.

The jury awarded Steven Johnson $15,000 in damages. In the suit, Johnson, who was 27 and living in Gorham at the time of his arrest, claimed the officers hit him in the head and used pepper spray and a police baton to subdue him before arresting him Jan. 18, 2006.

However, police claimed Johnson was resisting arrest and became violent as police were arresting the driver of a car where Johnson was a passenger. Johnson was charged with two counts of assault on an officer, obstructing government administration and refusing to submit to arrest or detention.

During the trial, jurors listened to testimony from the officers involved in the arrest and watched a video of the event from one of the cruisers. The police video obtained by WGME Channel 13

Johnson’s attorney, Clifford Strike said his client was hit in the head, pepper-sprayed, and was hit twice with a police baton. He told the seven members of the jury, six women and one man, that the conduct they saw on the video was “outrageous and reprehensible.”

But Edward Benjamin, the attorney for the officers, argued that Johnson was resisting arrest, and Benjamin asked the jury to recognize what the four officers were facing that night.

“These guys have to make decisions like that,” Benjamin said, snapping his fingers.

Strike argued that police officers are trained to make those decisions. “Repeated blows to the head are excessive,” Strike said.

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