Victoria White can be seen in the right bottom corner of the above security video footage being repeatedly beaten by police while in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Suit will seek ‘significantly higher’ amount than preliminary ask of $1 million
Victoria C. White, the Minnesota woman who allegedly suffered a beating by District of Columbia police in the West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging assault, battery, and excessive use of force.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawsuit has initially sought $1 million in damages. Joseph McBride, White’s attorney, said the suit will be amended “with a dollar amount significantly higher than the preliminary ask of one million dollars.”
“Nothing will ever right the wrong committed against Ms. White, but making sure that she is compensated for the egregious injuries that she suffered on January 6, 2021, is certainly a start,” McBride said in a statement.
White’s beating is shown (and above) in detail on a three-hour video unsealed by a federal judge in December in a case involving another defendant charged in the wake of the rally featuring then-President Donald Trump and the subsequent unrest at the U.S. Capitol.
The video shows White being struck by police nearly 40 times in a four-minute span, including blows to the head with a steel baton and punches to the face and head, delivered by an officer in a white shirt.
McBride said he believes the officer in white is a Metro D.C. police supervisor, who is listed in the lawsuit as Officer John Doe 1.
The suit seeks damages from the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia and seven of the dozens of police officers on duty in the West Terrace tunnel on Jan. 6. In December, McBride called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the beating.
The Metropolitan Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
The suit was filed late on Jan. 5, since some of the claims could have a one-year statute of limitations, McBride said.
