Man’s Hand Amputated After Alabama Cops Hold Him In “Unbearably Tight” Handcuffs for Hours

An Alabama man is suing the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for excessive force and civil rights violations after a sheriff’s deputy handcuffed him too tightly for several hours, resulting in major injuries that ultimately led to the amputation of his left hand.

Giovanni Loyola, 26, was at his mother’s trailer in Pinson, Alabama,  on Feb. 16, 2020, when three sheriff’s deputies arrived in response to reports of an alleged fight between two men wielding firearms.

According to the lawsuit, a “Deputy Godber” grabbed Loyola by the wrist and roughly detained him mere moments after Loyola answered the door.

At that point, the deputy then pulled Loyola down the stairs and “slammed” him against the car before throwing him to the ground and punching him in the face. The deputy proceeded to handcuff Loyola in a manner that as “unbearably tight.”

Loyola claims that complications from the incident led to the amputation of his hand 10 months later.

According to the deputy’s report, Loyola was allegedly intoxicated and fighting with family members before he fought the deputies and resisted arrest. Loyola, however, claims that he was merely watching television.

During the arrest, Loyola complained that he was feeling numb in his left hand but deputy Godber ignored his pleas.

“The handcuffs remained tightly on Plaintiff’s wrists until they were removed hours later at the jail,” the amended complaint read. “After Plaintiff got out of jail on February 28, 2020, his left wrist was still in tremendous pain.”

Following his release from jail, Loyola checked into a local hospital and was told that he had a severe blood flow issue requiring surgery. Upon admission at Ascension St. Vincent’s East hospital in Birmingham, his fingertips were grey and doctors had a “concern for necrosis.”

Following multiple hospital visits and four surgeries over the course of 10 months, he eventually had the left hand amputated.

“Deputy Godber handcuffed Plaintiff’s wrists so tightly that Plaintiff immediately lost sensation in one hand, and Deputy Godber refused to loosen the handcuffs even after Plaintiff told him that they were too tight and were causing him pain,” Loyola’s attorneys argued. “These actions and inactions constituted unreasonable and excessive force.”

The lawsuit also alleges that deputies unlawfully searched his home without a warrant. Loyola is now suing for compensatory damages related to the physical and mental toll of the ordeal, his loss of income due to an inability to work, as well as medical costs, legal fees, and punitive damages.