The father of a Joliet man who died in police custody on Christmas Day 2024 has filed a federal lawsuit that blames the officers for his son’s death.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Chicago law firm Barney Hammond, two days before the anniversary of the death of David Malito, 39, who acted erratically toward Joliet police officers responding to his 911 call at a gas station.

Officers placed Malito in handcuffs during a struggle that led to Malito falling to the ground outside the gas station. One of the officers, Christopher Meza, kept his knee on Malito’s upper back area before noticing that he was not breathing, according to body camera video of the incident.

Malito’s handcuffs were removed, and he was given an anti-overdose medication before he was taken to a hospital.

A forensic pathologist determined that Malito died from cocaine intoxication, and an outside investigation led to no charges against the officers.

But the lawsuit from Malito’s father, David Palacios, contends that Meza’s actions caused his son’s death. Two other officers, Oliwia Nowak and Andrea Espinosa, were accused of failing to intervene in the face of Meza’s alleged misconduct.

The officers should have known that Malito was “suffering from a mental condition that was distorting his reality,” according to the lawsuit.

While Malito was lying handcuffed in a prone position on the ground, he was not resisting or posing a threat to anyone, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged that Malito was showing “clear signs of physical stress and exhaustion,” but Meza forcefully placed his knee on Malito’s upper back and placed “significant pressure” on Malito with his body weight.

Meza was kneeling on Malito’s back for about one minute and 15 seconds, according to the lawsuit.

“[Meza] continued to kneel on David Malito’s back despite clear signs that David Malito was in respiratory distress and losing consciousness,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit cites the results of a three-year civil rights investigation by the Illinois Attorney’s General Office of the Joliet Police Department.

The report from the attorney’s general office, released weeks before Malito’s death, found that the department had a pattern of unlawful policing enabled by the department’s “broken accountability systems.“

The “unconstitutional actions” of Meza and Nowak were a “direct result” of Joliet’s “pervasive, systemic and unconstitutional customs, policies and practices,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that a “culture of impunity and ratification” had “emboldened” Meza to use excessive force in plain view of witnesses and other officers, “secure in the knowledge that the city’s custom is to ignore or justify such misconduct.”

Joliet Police Chief Bill Evans said the attorney’s general report does not reflect the department “of today, but rather a picture of the past.”

Since the investigation, Evans said his department has “fully cooperated” with the attorney’s general office and provided “unfettered access to all available information.”

Evans defended the officers involved in the Malito incident based on the investigation from the Will County Coroner’s Office and the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force.

“Obviously, we feel very sorry for the family. We feel very sorry for their loss. It’s a very unfortunate situation for everybody,” Evans said earlier this year.