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Apr 21, 2023

Baltimore to pay CSX for a water main break and $500,000 to a teenager injured by a police Taser

The broken pipe flooded a train tunnel, while the Taser dart struck an unarmed

The broken pipe flooded a train tunnel, while the Taser dart struck an unarmed boy in his testicles.

Above: In July 2019, the force of the broken pipe caused a Light Rail platform to tumble into CSX's Howard Street Tunnel. (Fern Shen)

The Brew described it as "a scene of infrastructure misery" that played out near the convention center downtown on a hot summer morning in 2019:

"Conventioneers gaped as pieces of streetscape teetered at crazy angles – chunks of brick pavement, a TRAIN COMING signal on a pole, a manhole cover – as contractors, city workers and police swarmed around the collapse site at the intersection of Howard and Pratt streets."

The water main break that sank a portion of Howard Street, gobbling up parts of a Light Rail platform, also flooded out the rail tunnel beneath Howard Street.

• The latest byproduct of Baltimore's failing infrastructure: a sinkhole and snarled traffic (7/10/19)

The force of the water sent tons of silt into the tunnel, derailing several cars of a passing freight train. The silt flowed through storm drains into the Inner Harbor, turning the water into a sickly yellow-brown paste.

Tomorrow the Board of Estimates is set to pay $245,000 to the Florida-based railroad company for the damage caused to the 130-year-old tunnel.

At the same time, the BOE will also settle for $500,000 a lawsuit brought by Sean Lewis Jr. against a Baltimore police officer who Tased him with such force that he had to undergo surgery.

The incident happened in May 2018 when Officer Chris Florio was asked to remove the 15-year-old from a sidewalk outside an elementary school where he had come to fetch his younger brother.

"Officer Florio immediately drew his Taser, training it on Lewis and continuing to aim it at him throughout their encounter," according to a court summary of the facts.

Lewis complied with Florio's demand to vacate the sidewalk, but the officer "continued to engage Lewis for another 15 minutes while aiming his Taser at the teenager. At some point during this prolonged interaction, Officer Florio deployed the Taser."

Transported to the hospital in handcuffs, the boy underwent surgery to remove the Taser prong. He was never charged with a crime.

In October 2021, Lewis filed a federal lawsuit alleging battery and an unconstitutional arrest that had resulted in physical injuries, medical costs and emotional distress.

Represented by the city, Florio countered that the teenager had yelled at him and stepped towards him, justifying his use of the Taser.

Last September, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake denied Florio's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which led to the recommended settlement "to avoid the expense, time and uncertainties of further protracted litigation and the potential for an excess judgment," according to the city law department.

Two years before the Taser incident, Florio was one of three officers accused of throwing a 56-year-old woman to the ground at a BP gas station in West Baltimore.

Theresa Rouse filed a civil lawsuit arising from the incident in which Florio was seen putting his knee against the woman's neck, then handcuffing her while she was face down on the ground. (Cellphone footage was taken by an onlooker.)

• A flicked cigarette and a knee to the neck (3/29/21)

The city paid the victim $45,000, while BPD's Internal Affairs Division cleared Florio of any mishandling of the arrest.

He and the other officers faced no further disciplinary action, even though U.S. District Court Judge George Russell noted that Rouse "was considerably smaller than [Florio], who had no reason to believe that she was armed or especially dangerous."

Hired as an officer in 1998, Florio was paid $94,338 in salary and overtime in 2021, according to online records.

He has since left the department, a BPD spokeswoman told The Brew tonight.