Lawsuit filed in connection to Novant security guard assault case

CHARLOTTE — A civil lawsuit has been filed by the person Novant Health security officers are accused of assaulting in 2022.

In the suit, the plaintiff said he was arrested at Roof Above Men’s Shelter and taken to the hospital on Feb. 8, 2022. He alleged that Novant and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers refused to tell him why he was taken to the hospital.

The plaintiff said he “became upset, confused, belligerent, and refused to answer Novant triage questions because none of his questions were being answered.”

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff sat down when he was asked to do so later, and that’s when a hospital employee called over security guards to deal with him. He said he was surrounded by a group of security officers who included Philip Holliday and Franklin Jones.

“The security officers were visibly irate and, from erratic nature of their movements and labored nature of their breathing, Plaintiff deduced they were riled up,” the lawsuit alleges. “Their aggression was palpable, it was as if they were soldiers prepping themselves for battle with Plaintiff.”

The plaintiff said he refused to go outside when the guards asked him to because he was waiting for triage, so they arrested him “against his will, and without justification.”

The plaintiff then alleges that even though he was complying peacefully to the guards, they “began subjecting Plaintiff to a terrifying onslaught of physical violence.”

Channel 9 reported last year that Holliday and Jones were charged with assault inflicting serious injury in the case. They were accused of striking the victim “about the face and body with a closed fist thereby inflicting serious injury extensive swelling and bruising to face, neck and head, lacerations to mouth, bleeding from nose and mouth and loss of consciousness,” according to arrest warrants.

The lawsuit details the assault further, saying the plaintiff was “violently snatched up from behind,” “began losing consciousness,” “felt several closed-fist strikes directly to his face,” and “choke[d] upon his own blood.”

He accuses Novant of negligence and improper training, saying the health system knew the guards “lacked the temperament, objectivity, maturity, discretion and proper disposition to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence and disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality, and justice; and to function lawfully as security officers.”

The plaintiff is asking for a jury trial and an unspecified amount of damages.

Channel 9 has reached out to Novant for comment.

(WATCH BELOW: Atrium, Novant, CaroMont lift COVID-19 mask restrictions)

Atrium, Novant, CaroMont lift COVID-19 mask restrictions

©2023 Cox Media Group