Ex-Universal Exec Brian Mulligan Files $20 Million Lawsuit Over LAPD Altercation

Mulligan, whose involvement with bath salts made headlines, claims he was brutally attacked by two officers.

A former top executive at Universal Pictures has filed a $20 million lawsuit claiming that Los Angeles Police Department officers who were under investigation for assaulting civilians beat him senseless during a bizarre altercation last year that made national headlines.

Brian Mulligan, who was co-chair of Universal in the 1990s and most recently served as a managing director of Deutsche Bank's L.A. entertainment practice, filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles claiming he suffered a broken shoulder blade and facial fractures requiring several surgeries at the hands of police officers after they stopped him in the city's Highland Park neighborhood and forced him to check into a local motel and stay there against his will. When he left the hotel, Mulligan claims he was attacked by the officers and hit in the face with a baton.

Read the full complaint here... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/custom/Documents/MULLIGAN_.pdf

A rep for the LAPD declined to comment on the lawsuit. In a statement, a rep for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents LAPD officers, said he hadn't seen the lawsuit. "What we can tell you is that Mr. Mulligan thrust himself into the public eye by holding a press conference to discuss his wild and lurid allegations against LAPD officers," the LPPL rep said in the statement. "The unedited, complete version of Mulligan’s tape recorded conversation with another law enforcement agency is at odds with the tale he wove, but the tape speaks for itself."

The suit targets the City of Los Angeles, the LAPD, the Protective League and two officers, James Nichols and John Miller, whom Mulligan claims violated his civil rights by beating him and falsely imprisoning him in the motel. In January, the Los Angeles Times reported that Nichols is under investigation for allegedly luring women to unmarked cars and forcing them to perform sex acts. The story, based on court documents, claimed that LAPD internal affairs investigators believe Nichols and another officer used the threat of jail to drive women to secluded areas where one of the officers demanded sex while the other kept watch.

"Nichols told Mulligan he'd be dead if he left the room," the lawsuit alleges. "But unlike Nichols' previous victims, Mulligan didn't comply. He left the motel, and when he did, Nichols found him and beat him within an inch of his life."

The lawsuit refers to Nichols as a "serial predator" and claims that the "LAPD was warned about Nichols but did nothing to stop him, and as a consequence his assaults continued, including the brutal beating of … Brian Mulligan."

Mulligan claims in the suit that the LAPD and the Police Protective League and its president, Tyler Izen, conspired to smear Mulligan in the media, issuing a press release that called him a "dangerous, delusional drug addict." Audio of the incident appeared online. Mulligan's bloodied and battered face appeared on TMZ, and his involvement with bath salts was widely reported.

In August, Mulligan filed a $50 million claim against the city accusing officers of beating and illegally detaining him. The move was the first step in suing the city over the circumstances surrounding his arrest May 16 at about 1 a.m. for interfering with a police officer.

Read More... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/universal-exec-brian-mulligan-files-418693