Parish: St. Tammany
Police Department: St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and Reid Collins & Tsai LLP, on behalf of Plaintiff De’Shaun Johnson, filed their brief in opposition to Defendant Moring’s appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In May 2020, Mr. Johnson filmed the violent arrest of his mother, Ms. Teliah C. Perkins, when Defendant Moring, a deputy in the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, intentionally inflicted emotional distress on him by threatening him with a taser.
On that day, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s deputies entered Ms. Perkins’s property, accusing her of a minor traffic violation that she did not commit. As her son, Mr. Johnson, and nephew stood close by, the officers violently tackled her onto the pavement, pinning and pressing her down with the full force of their body weight. Defendant Deputy Hart pressed his forearm into her windpipe, causing her to gasp for air and exclaim, “You’re choking me.” As Ms. Perkins’s son recorded the incident on his phone, Defendant Moring blocked the camera’s view and drew his Taser, pointing it directly at him. The fourteen-year-old objected, “You can’t tase a child.” Defendant Moring responded, “Watch me.”
Since the incident, Mr. Johnson has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and received treatment as a result before then bringing the case to trial. After a four-hour deliberation, during which jurors heard testimony from Mr. Johnson, Ms. Perkins, Defendant Moring, and experts on law enforcement training and standards, the jury concluded that the Defendant officer intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Mr. Johnson during the incident, awarding $185,000 in damages.
In December of 2024, following the jury’s verdict, the Defendant appealed the district court’s decision by alleging that the court erred in denying their motion for judgment as a matter of law. The Defendants argue that Mr. Johnson failed to provide evidence of any of the elements of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress under Louisiana law. Specifically, Defendant Moring argues that (1) his conduct was not extreme or outrageous; (2) Mr. Johnson did not suffer severe emotional distress; and (3) there was no evidence that he intended to inflict Mr. Johnson with severe emotional distress.
On February 10, 2025, Mr. Johnson filed his brief in opposition, arguing that the jury correctly held the Defendant liable for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress and urges the Fifth Circuit to uphold the jury’s verdict. Mr. Johnson also contends that Defendant Moring’s arguments should be rejected because he misrepresents the trial record in three critical ways. First, the defendant improperly cites the summary judgment record of a prior appeal rather than the trial record. Second, the defendant ignored three recordings of the incident admitted as key pieces of evidence at trial. Lastly, the defendant improperly ignored an authenticated medical record that demonstrates Mr. Johnson’s PTSD and related symptoms, which was submitted as evidence to the jury. Additionally, Mr. Johnson raises that because Defendant Moring did not file any post-trial motions, either contesting the jury’s verdict, requesting a new trial, or moving for remittitur of damages awarded by the jury, he wholly forfeited his right to challenge the evidentiary basis for the jury’s verdict.
Mr. Johnson is represented by Nora Ahmed, the Legal Director of the ACLU of Louisiana, and a team of attorneys at Reid Collins & Tsai LLP, including Keith Y. Cohan, Ryan M. Goldstein, and Emma Cullota.
The Defendant-Appellant in this case is:
- Deputy Ryan Moring of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office