A Chicago man claims in a federal lawsuit that he led police on a high-speed chase on Interstate 65 in October because he feared for his life from a Lake County officer.
Joshua Aston Kruel filed his lawsuit Monday against the Lake County Sheriff’s Department in the U.S. District Court in Hammond. He is asking for $5 million in damages.
Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said he had heard of the lawsuit but would not comment until he could speak to his lawyers about it.
Kruel says in his lawsuit that he was driving southbound on I-65 in Jasper County in a rental car from his home to his college in Ohio on Oct. 4, 2014, when he sped up and got over into the right lane so a car behind him could pass.
However, in the car was a police officer, Michael Stewart, who then pulled Kruel over. Stewart is also named as a defendant.
The lawsuit says Kruel called his mother because he didn’t know what to do and that Stewart began yelling at him to get off the phone.
The lawsuit claims Stewart also broke Kruel’s license in half and then reached into the car to unlock the front door. Kruel claims the officer then began to use a stun gun on him and ordered him out of the car.
Stewart also reportedly called Kruel a racial epithet and punched him in the face, according to the lawsuit.
Stewart then reached for his waistband, the lawsuit says, and Kruel sped off because he feared for his life.
A chase then started that got up to speeds of 100 mph, and Kruel says in the suit that his father, whom he called for help, told him to go to an area where other people were.
He claims in the lawsuit that Stewart tried to build a drug case against him by telling dispatchers he saw Kruel throw marijuana papers out the window.
Police finally stopped Kruel when he turned around and tried to exit off the interstate. The lawsuit claims they never found anything related to drugs in his car.
According to Jasper County court records, Kruel was charged with running away from lawful detention, criminal recklessness, resisting law enforcement, battery against an officer and possession of marijuana. He is set to go on trial on Nov. 5.
After Stewart placed Kruel under arrest, the lawsuit says the officer told Kruel he should be nervous about driving in Jasper County from now on and that the “brothers of the nation” would deal with him.
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