Lawyers for the family of Renardo Green have denounced an attempt by Annapolis attorneys to dismiss their $75 million wrongful death lawsuit, saying the city “should not be rewarded” for a “problem of their own making.”

Attorneys for the family filed a 71-page response Feb. 15 to the city’s request last month to close their claim. Green, 51, died three days after a June 2021 encounter with police in which he was strapped face down to a stretcher and suffered cardiac arrest. He was never charged with a crime, and an autopsy later classified his death as a homicide.

In January, lawyers representing the city of Annapolis argued the family’s allegations were “too vague and generalized” to “draw a plausible connection” to specific law enforcement and emergency response personnel. They asked the U.S. District Court of Maryland to either close the suit or require the family to make “more specific allegations attributable” to individual defendants, four named police officers and five unnamed paramedics — all of whom are still employed.

The family said, however, they have made their case as specific as possible given the limited information at their disposal. According to their December complaint, the family has been denied access to body-camera footage of the encounter pending an ongoing investigation by county prosecutors.

Any charges pursued by State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess would be separate from the federal lawsuit against the city.

Brian Marsh, an assistant state’s attorney and spokesperson for Leitess, declined to comment on the county’s investigation, which he described as “an open matter.” The State’s Attorney’s Office has previously acknowledged Green’s death as being under investigation since at least December 2021.

The family confirmed Wednesday the video evidence is still being withheld from them.

In their filing, the family’s attorneys — Malcolm Ruff, Patrick Thronson, Brenda Harkavy, William Murphy and Dwayne Brown — wrote the city “cannot claim in good faith” an inability to proceed when “they possess indisputable evidence ... while refusing to turn [it] over” to the plaintiffs.

A recent Maryland Public Information Act request for the footage filed by The Capital was also denied.

Annapolis attorneys have until March 8 to reply.

In the early morning of June 1, 2021, police and paramedics responded to Green’s Eastport apartment after his wife called for help. She told city officials Green was under the influence of the psychedelic drug PCP and breaking things around the house. She also asked for an ambulance because her husband had cut his hand.

When police arrived, Green was pinned on the ground by a relative and officers were unable to calm him down, according to police reports. He was then restrained with shackles and two sets of handcuffs before paramedics arrived and strapped him face down on a spine board and then a stretcher.

According to the autopsy report, which was known to authorities more than a month before it was revealed by The Capital, Green became unresponsive around the time he was loaded onto the ambulance. Declared brain dead, he was revived in the emergency room but never regained consciousness.

In its response this week, the family’s legal team criticized the city’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, at times accusing Annapolis lawyers of misleading the court with misconstrued case law.

The city argued last month that its nine first responders ought to be granted qualified immunity for their handling of Green. Qualified immunity shields state actors from individual liability in cases where a constitutional right is allegedly broken, so long as that right was “clearly established” at the time of the incident. The doctrine has been criticized by civil rights groups for imposing a high, “nearly impossible” burden of proof on individuals suing public officials, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

In their motion to dismiss, Annapolis attorneys acknowledged the Fourth Circuit “has consistently denied” qualified immunity to police personnel who used excessive force against people like Green, who “had not committed any crimes, were secured in handcuffs, and posed no threat to the officers.”

They claimed, however, there was “no controlling authority” that governs holding someone in a prone position.

The family’s attorneys refuted that, saying Green’s rights guaranteeing him adequate medical care and protecting him from excessive force are recognized in case and state law. Specifically, they referenced the federal suit filed by the family of Anton Black, a 19-year-old African American man who died in 2018 after he was pinned down by three police officers in Caroline County. The Fourth Circuit denied the officers qualified immunity in that case determining that applying “unnecessary pressure” on someone after they stopped resisting constitutes excessive force.

The Black lawsuit was cited by the city in its “no controlling authority” argument, though the family’s lawyers said they “need look no further” than the case “they rely on” to disprove that claim.

In their initial complaint and again in Wednesday’s response, the family cited the Maryland Medical Protocols for Emergency Medical Services, which at the time of Green’s death instructed paramedics to avoid restraining patients in a “face down, hobbled or hog-tied position.” The protocols state if a patient is handcuffed, they should be moved to a “face-up position with hands anterior and secured to [the] stretcher.”

Citing a 1984 Supreme Court decision, the city’s attorneys argued the paramedics’ failure to abide by these state regulations did not violate Green’s civil rights. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled public officials cannot lose their immunity by violating “the clear command” of state or federal law “unless the statute or regulation provides the basis for the cause of action sued upon,” as it does in Green’s case.

By ignoring a “clearly laid exception,” the family’s lawyers said Annapolis’ “construction of this decision” was an attempt to mislead the court.