Outcome of Virginia police officers who pepper-sprayed unarmed uniformed Army lieutenant Story by Jeff Schogol

 An Army lieutenant who sued two police officers for pointing their weapons, pepper spraying him, and taking him to the ground during a 2020 traffic stop that gained national notoriety has won just a fraction of the $1 million in damages he sought.

2nd Lt. Caron Nazario filed his lawsuit in April 2021 against two police officers in Windsor, Virginia: Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker. Nazario argued that on Dec. 5, 2020, the two officers had illegally detained him and then lied about their actions in official reports about the incident. Nazario also accused Gutierrez, later fired by the Windsor Police Department, of threatening to kill him.

On Tuesday, a jury largely absolved Gutierrez and Crocker for their conduct during the traffic stop. Jurors found that Crocker should pay $1,000 "to serve as an example to prevent others from acting similarly," and Gutierrez should pay $2,685 in damages for assaulting Nazario, court records show.

When asked about the verdict, Jonathan Arthur, one of Nazario's attorneys, said that the jury had "got it wrong," adding that his client would seek a new trial.

Arthur also said he has yet to learn how jurors arrived at their decision to award Nazario so little in damages.

"I think we were all shocked," Arthur told Task & Purpose.

Coreen Silverman, one of Gutierrez's attorneys, said that Nazario was driving with expired New York transit tags when he was pulled over.

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Moreover, Nazario drove past several well-lit areas where he could have pulled over before finally stopping at a gas station on the left-hand side of the road, Silverman told Task & Purpose on Thursday. Video footage of the arrest also shows that Nazario repeatedly refused to get out of his SUV despite being ordered to by the police officers.

Rick Matthews, who represented Crocker, said the verdict in the case shows the jury rejected almost all the allegations Nazario had made in his lawsuit after seeing "the full picture."

"The full picture was not what was put forward in public by the plaintiff and the blitz when this case was first filed," Matthews told Task & Purpose. "The entire factual story was presented to the jury over the course of a weeklong trial, and the jury came back and – to almost every extent – exonerated the conduct of the police officers."

On the night of the incident, Nazario was driving his recently purchased Chevrolet Tahoe, which did not yet have permanent license plates, according to his lawsuit. Nazario's attorneys said he had temporary cardboard license plates taped inside his SUV, but Silverman said evidence showed that was not true