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A federal judge is being asked to immediately order the Cleveland Clinic to stop detaining people who bring gunshot wound victims to its emergency rooms while a legal challenge to the policy moves forward.
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The request is part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Ibrahim Alim, who was detained last May after he drove his friend with a gunshot wound to the emergency department. Signal Cleveland reported on his story last December. At the time, three legal experts questioned whether the policy — which instructs the hospital’s police to detain people and vehicles accompanying gunshot wound victims to the emergency room — might infringe on constitutional rights that limit how and when officers can detain individuals. Cleveland’s branch of the NAACP also called on the Cleveland Clinic to pause and reverse the policy last year.
In addition to detaining Alim, the lawsuit says officers also unconstitutionally searched him, seized his car keys and used excessive force against him, even though they had no evidence he was involved in a crime. Alim is seeking $10 million in damages, according to the civil rights lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court.
Alim and his attorneys argued that part of what makes the hospital’s gunshot policy unconstitutional is that it does not require officers to detail why they think an individual was involved in a crime before detaining them. The Supreme Court has ruled that reasonable suspicion is required for police to detain residents.
The lawsuit also argues that the policy could have a chilling effect on civilians who want to save a life by driving gunshot victims to the emergency room. The attorneys cite Ohio’s Good Samaritan law, which protects residents who provide emergency assistance.
“The policy will harm countless future Good Samaritans — heroes who, like Mr. Alim, will be punished for doing exactly what the law allows,” the filing read.
Alim’s lawyers have asked a judge to rule swiftly on their request for a temporary restraining order and injunction. They also asked the court to require the hospital to issue new written guidelines regarding constitutional detention and use-of-force procedures for Cleveland Clinic police officers who interact with Good Samaritans arriving at the emergency room.
The Clinic confirmed Wednesday that the policy at the center of the lawsuit is still in place. Last year, the Cleveland Clinic told Signal Cleveland that dropping off a gunshot victim at the emergency department was enough to raise reasonable suspicion to briefly detain someone.
The hospital said it is aware of the lawsuit and takes these matters seriously, but it does not comment on pending litigation. The hospital also said it disagrees with the suit’s allegations, which it called false. It did not specify which allegations it contends are false.
At a public meeting in February, Cleveland Police Chief Deon McCaulley spoke about the policy and said there was “no need” to change it. McCaulley said, at the time, that detention “is just holding a person for an interview.” Doing this after a resident brings in a gunshot wound victim is essential police work, he said. Otherwise the department may fail to gather information crucial to investigating a crime.
“It’s a simple conversation,” McCaulley said. “That’s all the detention is, is a simple conversation to say, ‘Thank you for bringing this individual to get help at the hospital. Now tell us, where did you find this individual? Who is he? Where did it happen?’ … And when that conversation is over, the person is generally released.”
In addition to the Clinic, the lawsuit included 10 unnamed Cleveland Clinic police officers and the City of Cleveland.
Alim went to the Cleveland Clinic last May after he got a call from a friend who had been shot and needed help.
He picked his friend up and dropped him off at the emergency department at the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus. After his friend was taken inside for treatment, body camera footage showed that officers took Alim’s keys out of his car. Twenty-three seconds later, after first asking for his identification, officers then pinned Alim against a car and handcuffed him. A struggle ensued, causing officers and Alim to fall to the ground.
Alim was held for about half an hour in a Cleveland Clinic police car until Cleveland police officers removed him for a conversation, after which he was eventually released without charges. The Cleveland police department identified a separate suspect, who was not Alim, according to police reports.
In addition to wrongful detention, the lawsuit alleges that when police officers “unlawfully removed Mr. Alim’s car keys from the ignition of his vehicle,” he was deprived of his property and his ability to leave.
The lawsuit also accuses Clinic officers of sexually assaulting Alim and using excessive force against him, including an officer forcibly inserting a finger into Alim’s anus, which caused him physical injury, psychological trauma and emotional distress. The action, according to the lawsuit, was an unlawful body cavity search, the lawsuit alleged.
(In a police report from the incident, one officer indicated that there could be other explanations for what Alim felt, such as officers’ knees on his rear end.)
Alim’s attorneys, Dan Smith and Alex Bodiford, are involved in a separate case against Clinic police officers. Bodiford filed a case against the Cleveland Clinic police department in December for unlawfully arresting him in 2024. Bodiford was at the hospital with his mother, who was having surgery. When he attempted to pick up his car from the valet, Cleveland Clinic police officers handcuffed and detained him without probable cause or a warrant, according to the complaint.
In a court response, the Clinic denied Bodiford’s claims and said he was trespassing after the building closed.
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Federal judge asked to halt Cleveland Clinic policy of detaining people who transport gunshot victims to ER – Signal Cleveland
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