BALTIMORE (AP) — The state of Maryland is seeking dismissal of allegations in a federal lawsuit that it contributed to the wrongful death of a man with Down syndrome who suffocated in the custody of three Frederick County sheriff’s deputies moonlighting as mall security guards.
The attorney general’s office said in a document filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that Robert Ethan Saylor was arrested because he was trespassing, stealing and disobeying police — not because the officers hadn’t been properly trained.
The 26-year-old New Market man died in January 2013 as deputies tried to remove him from a movie theater because he didn’t have a ticket for a repeat viewing of “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Saylor’s family also is suing Regal Cinemas and mall operator Hill Management Services of Timonium.
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