Black man sues over incident in viral video showing police on horse leading him by rope

A Black man from Galveston, Texas, is suing city officials after two officers on horseback used a rope to lead him down the street.

Video that went viral in August showed 43-year-old Donald Neely handcuffed being led by two officers with the Galveston Police Department who had arrested Neely on criminal trespassing charges. 

The lawsuit obtained by ABC News said that Neely “suffered from handcuff abrasions, suffered from the heat, and suffered from embarrassment, humiliation and fear as he was led by rope and mounted officers down the city street” during his arrest.

The suit also says officers should have realized that Neely “being led with a rope and by mounted officers down a city street as though he was a slave, would find this contact offensive.”

The city’s police chief apologized for the spectacle at the time and pledged to no longer use mounted officers to transport arrested persons.

“Although this is a trained technique and best practice in some scenarios, I believe our officers showed poor judgment in this instance and could have waited for a transport unit at the location of the arrest,” the city’s police chief said in a statement at the time.

“My officers did not have any malicious intent at the time of the arrest, but we have immediately changed the policy to prevent the use of this technique and will review all mounted training and procedures for more appropriate methods,” he added.

Neely’s sister sharply criticized the manner of her brother’s arrest in an interview with The New York Times in August, explaining that Neely battled homelessness and mental illness.

“They don’t care to know the whole story,” Taranette Neely said at the time. “You’re a criminal in their eyes. You’ll always be a criminal. Ain’t no redemption for you. You’re trash. And that’s how they treated him.”