Man Whose Arm was Broken By Police Settles

Eric McTague, the 26-year old homeless man who had his arm broken by Santa Barbara Police public information officer Lt. Donald McCaffery, pled guilty to a host of misdemeanor offenses Tuesday as part of a deal designed to avoid what authorities feared would have been an embarrassing and high profile trial. Earlier this May, television news reporters videotaped McCaffery struggling to subdue McTague, who was taunting him from the bleachers of a downtown softball field. McCaffery finally got McTague under control, but wound up breaking his arm in the process, by yanking it behind the homeless man’s back.

McCaffery, who not wearing a uniform at the time, had been attempting to conduct an interview. He claimed that McTague resisted arrest, but McTague insisted he was merely attempting to walk away from McCaffery. Since the fracas last May, McTague was cited for several additional offenses, all misdemeanors. In a package deal reached with prosecutors, McTague was sentenced to two months in county jail.