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A man has sued a Florida county and sheriff’s department arguing a deputy discharged his taser at a gas station and sparked a fire that burned 75 percent of his body.
Jean Louis Barreto-Baerga filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Marcos Lopez and four deputies. The lawsuit follows a February 2022 incident in which a deputy tased him at a gas station, sparking a fire and causing his body to be severely burned, according to WFTV9.
In February 2022 deputies were pursuing Barreto-Baerga, who was on a dirtbike, after they received a report that there was an assault by a person on a motorcycle, according to the lawsuit reviewed by WFTV9. The case states the deputies were informed during the incident that Barreto-Baerga was not their suspect.
The then-26-year-old stopped at a Wawa gas station to fill his bike’s tank. There, deputies tackled him to the ground and tased him, the lawsuit claims. A deputy then tased him a second time, according to the lawsuit, which ignited the gas around them.
The fire caused burns to most of Barreto-Baerga’s body and he was not expected to survive.
Deputy David Crawford, who tackled the man had the taser in his hand when the fire ignited, Osceola County Sheriff Lopez said in a press conference soon after the incident, per CNN.
“According to the taser log, there was a trigger pulled that coincides with the timing,” Lopez said.
The state fire marshal issued a report in 2022 ruling the taser caused the fire, WFTV9 reports. However, the report did rule that the fire was accidental.
“The most probable cause of the fire was an electric discharge from the deputies deploying a department-issued taser device,” the report states.
Deputies assisted Barreto-Baerga as soon as his body was “engulfed” by the flames, Lopez added.
Crawford was later prosecuted for negligence. Throughout the trial, it was not disputed whether or not Crawford tased Barreto-Baerga, according to local outlet WESH 2 News. Instead, the jury had to consider whether or not Crawford was acting negligently when he tased him.
Prosecutors argued Crawford negligently tased his client and sparked the fire. Meanwhile, Crawford’s defense attorney argued the entire incident was an accident. The deputy also told the jury he was afraid Barreto-Baerga was armed, which he was not.
A jury acquitted Crawford in November after a week-long trial.
“We were convinced from the very beginning that my client was not convinced of these charges,” Crawford’s attorney Michael Barber said after the verdict, according to CNN.
“We are very happy with the result we got here today,” he added. “My client’s relieved. I’m relieved. We are just very happy the jury reached the right conclusion.”
Prosecuting attorney Ryan Williams told CNN it was the jury’s “decision to determine if a law enforcement officer’s use of force is reasonable,” which they ultimately did.
Barreto-Baerga’s attorney Albert Yonfa, meanwhile, emphasized that the deputies knew his client wasn’t their suspect.
“One of the most significant things to come out of this trial was the evidence that the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office knew, nearly ten minutes before the encounter at the gas station, that Jean was not the suspect they were looking for,” Yonfa told CNN.
“Yet the department continued a bloodthirsty pursuit of Jean Barreto,” he continued. “This is consistent with their zero-tolerance policy and with their practices and procedures.”
Barreto-Baerga incurred more than $7 million in medical expenses while recovering from the severe burns, Yonfa said during the trial.
“Jean spent a year in intensive care, frequently at the edge of death,” his attorneys said in a statement this week. “During part of that time, he had to be put into a medically induced coma after his body rejected skin grafts from cadavers. Today, Jean’s life is entirely changed, as this completely unnecessary use of force has altered and disfigured him permanently.”
The Independent has contacted the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department and Crawford’s attorney for comment.
This article was updated on January 24 to clarify the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department was named in the lawsuit a defendant, rather than Osceola County.
