Judge rejects robber's police-brutality claim

10/14/2005

A federal judge has rejected a claim by a convicted bank robber that law enforcement officers used excessive force when they arrested him after the holdup of a Defiance financial institution two years ago.

Yusuf Bilaal, also known as Daniel P. McKinney, was taken into custody June 12, 2003, on charges of robbery and fleeing and eluding. Authorities said that Bilaal robbed the Key Bank branch in Defiance that day, telling employees he was "wired with explosives."

Afterward, Bilaal led Defiance police and sheriff's deputies from Defiance and Paulding counties on a vehicle chase at speeds up to 100 mph. During the chase, officers tried to box in Bilaal with their vehicles, and he tried to run them off the road, according to court documents.

Bilaal claimed in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo last year that officers used excessive force by beating and kicking him after he was handcuffed face down on a Paulding County road. But Judge James Carr ruled that police "acted in an objectively reasonable manner," considering Bilaal's claims that he had explosives and his actions during the chase.