In separate case, AC cop accused of student beating used excessive force

An Atlantic City police officer under suit by a Temple student for a violent arrest caught on tape this summer was ruled to have used excessive force in another case by a federal jury on Thursday, Dec. 19, the Press of Atlantic City reports.

Officer Sterling Wheaton was ordered to pay $250,000 in damages and Atlantic City is liable to pay another $250,000 stemming from the 2008 arrest of then-Deputy State Attorney General Michael Troso. Troso claimed that Wheaton and other officers falsely arrested him during his bachelor party in Atlantic City, and that he subsequently lost his job.

No other officers were found liable in the case.

In June, junior media studies major David Castellani was arrested outside the Tropicana Resort & Casino by a group of police officers, including Wheaton, who used a canine unit to subdue the student in a gruesome incident caught on a security camera.

Castellani was treated for multiple injuries, including a crushed spinal column and dog bites that required more than 200 stitches. Castellani filed suit in federal court and a video of the incident subsequently gained widespread attention online.