The State - News from April 6, 1989

Three Oakland policemen were sued by a black officer who charged that they hit him with their patrol car and beat him before recognizing him as an undercover colleague. Derrick Norfleet, 25, said he had just finished making an undercover drug buy last July when the other officers chased him, ran into him, kicked him and beat him with a flashlight. It wasn’t until he rolled over that they saw who he was, Norfleet said. Attorney John Burris said it appeared that his client had been assaulted because he is black. Two of the defendants are white and the third is Asian. The federal court suit, seeking at least $1.5 million, also named the city of Oakland.