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WASHINGTON — A Ferguson police officer who helped detain a journalist in a McDonald’s earlier this month is in the midst of a civil rights lawsuit because he allegedly hog-tied a 12-year-old boy who was checking the mail at the end of his driveway.

According to a lawsuit filed in 2012 in Missouri federal court, Justin Cosma and another officer, Richard Carter, approached a 12-year-old boy who was checking the mailbox at the end of his driveway in June 2010. Cosma was an officer with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at the time, the lawsuit states. The pair asked the boy if he’d been playing on a nearby highway, and he replied no, according to the lawsuit.

Then, the officers “became confrontational” and intimidated the child, the lawsuit claims. “Unprovoked and without cause, the deputies grabbed [the boy], choked him around the neck and threw him to the ground,” it says. The boy was shirtless at the time, and allegedly “suffered bruising, choke marks, scrapes and cuts across his body.”

The 12-year-old was transferred to a medical facility for treatment, but the lawsuit says Cosmia and the other officer reported the incident as “assault of a law enforcement officer third degree” and “resisting/interfering with arrest, detention or stop.”

Jefferson County prosecutors “refused to issue a juvenile case” against the young child, the suit says.

The allegations against Cosma were made in September 2012, shortly after he was introduced as a new officer at a Ferguson City Council meeting. Jefferson County is just south of Ferguson.

Captain Ron Arnhart of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, who is a candidate for sheriff, did not respond to The Huffington Post’s request for comment on the circumstances of Cosma’s departure. Neither Ferguson police spokesman Tom Zoll nor Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson responded to requests for comment.

A dispatcher at the Ferguson Police Department said she would relay a message to Cosma, who was out in the field on Sunday afternoon.

Richard R. Lozano, the lawyer representing the young man in the lawsuit, declined to be interviewed due to the pending claims against Cosma and the other officer. He said he anticipates a trial date early next year. However, Lozano did provide a statement.

“The lawsuit alleges that Justin Cosma and Richard Carter, two deputies with the Jefferson County, Missouri sheriff’s department in 2010, assaulted my client during an encounter on my client’s driveway while his mother was inside their house. My client was 12 years old at the time, shirtless and was not suspected of any criminal behavior. He was checking the mail. The deputies approached my client and the encounter quickly escalated. My client was restrained, choked, thrown to the ground and hogtied by the two deputies. He suffered scrapes and choke marks to his neck. No charges were ever brought against my client. It is my understanding that Justin Cosma is currently an officer with the City of Ferguson,” Lozano wrote.

Cosma was also one of the officers who detained journalists from HuffPost and The Washington Post earlier this month in a local McDonald’s. He declined to give his name or badge number at the time, and has subsequently refused to identify himself to the press. A reader tip allowed HuffPost to match his name and face after the altercation.

While still at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Cosma received an award for dealing with a person in psychiatric crisis, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Cosma isn’t the only officer whose past has received new attention in the wake of the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the subsequent protests in Ferguson. Eddie Boyd III, an officer who faced allegations of hitting children while serving under the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, quietly resigned and sought employment with the Ferguson Police Department. Boyd faced three complaints of physical abuse against children between 2004 and 2006, two of which were dropped. Internal affairs sustained the third complaint against Boyd, saying there was sufficient evidence to support the allegation that he struck a 12-year-old girl in the head with a pistol, and recommended Boyd be fired. The St. Louis police chose to demote him.

Less than a year later, a teenage boy alleged that Boyd hit him in the nose with a gun, and the officer quietly resigned from his role at the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. His license was not revoked in the ensuing lawsuit. Boyd was hired by the Ferguson Police Department sometime between July 2009 and December 2010.

St. Louis County officer Dan Page, who has been on the force for 35 years, was suspended from duty for inflammatory comments made while addressing the Oath Keepers of St. Louis and St. Charles. Page made racist and sexist remarks, called President Obama an “illegal alien,” denounced hate crime laws and spoke flippantly about violence and killings. The video, uploaded to YouTube in April, was uncovered by CNN after Page pushed anchor Don Lemon on Aug. 18 during demonstrations in Ferguson.

St. Louis County Lt. Ray Albers was also suspended from duty after he threatened civilians in Ferguson, pointing his gun at them and shouting, “I will fucking kill you.” Reporter Joe Biggs was among the group being threatened.

“I can’t believe that that happened in America,” Biggs told HuffPost of the confrontation. “That’s something I’ve seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. In our country? Mind-blowing.”

Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Michael Brown, joined the Ferguson police after the city council in nearby Jennings disbanded the police department and brought in new officers over three years ago because of the poor relationship between cops and residents, the Washington Post reported.

Read the lawsuit laying out the allegations against Cosma below.

Justin Cosma

A 45-year-old African elephant’s unexpected death at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo has fanned the flames of the ongoing debate about the humaneness of elephant captivity.

Watoto was euthanized after she was found on her side in an outdoor elephant exhibit yard on Friday. Attempts to place her back on her feet had failed. Zoo medical staff assessed that her health was rapidly declining so they made “the difficult decision” to humanely euthanize her, according to the zoo’s press release.

“This is a very difficult time for our zoo family as we mourn the loss of Watoto, a beloved animal and dear friend to our staff and volunteers, members and community,” said Bruce Bohmke, Woodland Park Zoo’s Chief Operations Officer, in a statement. “Watoto has lived a long, healthful life at Woodland Park Zoo under the care of dedicated keepers and staff. We will all miss her greatly.”

According to the Associated Press, Watoto was born in Kenya around 1970 and brought to Seattle in 1971. She was living with two other elephants. Zoo staff are expected to conduct an animal autopsy to determine her cause of death, however staff believe the cause was old age.

Yet animal rights activists contend Watoto’s living conditions in captivity were a factor in her death.

“In the wild at 45 years old they’re still having babies,” Alyne Fortgang, a Seattle resident and critic of the zoo’s elephant exhibit, told the AP. “Watoto was lame. She had arthritis, chronic bouts of colic and skin conditions, all caused by her environment.”

For years, activists have lamented the continuation of elephant exhibits at zoos and called for the animals to be relocated to sanctuaries. They assert that the confined living quarters negatively impact the well-being of elephants.

Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo, an advocacy group that advocates for the relocation of the zoo’s elephants to sanctuaries, said in a post on their website that “Watoto’s life must not be in vain” and “confinement in a zoo takes a physical and psychological toll on these far-ranging and intelligent animals.”

FWPZ added that “Woodland Park Zoo is an exceptionally poor environment. The elephants are locked outdoors in less than 1 acre. Indoors, the elephants are locked in barren cages, standing on hard substrate and only able to walk a few steps in any direction. This lockup, due to our climate, lasts 16 to 17 hours a day, every day, for over half of the year.”

A 2012 investigation from The Seattle Times found that, on average, for every elephant born in a U.S. zoo, two others die.

This week, we got our hands on the HTC One M8 for Windows, anticipated the release of Halo 2: Anniversary, learned about monkey selfie rights, investigated issues with Secret’s anonymity and more! Read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last…

There’s a new rumor making the rounds today and its about the iPhone 6, which Apple is believed to be unveiling next month. A photo has emerged from somewhere in Asia which hints that perhaps Apple will redesign the iPhone 6 charging adapter for customers in the U.S. Adapters are configured based on a country or region’s specifications and slight variations have always been found. This time around a total redesign is rumored for the adapter that will be shipped on Apple’s home turf.

The picture of this purported iPhone 6 charger was posted on Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, and a source of many leaks that come out of Asia. Folks in Australia will recognize the shape. The adapter looks similar to the existing charger adapter shipped to customers in Australia.

This particular adapter is a little wider than the current U.S. model and it includes notches at either end to offer a better grip when plugging and unplugging it in the socket.

No explanation accompanies the image so Apple’s reasons for making this supposed change are unknown. There has been chatter that Apple wants to take the charger capacity beyond five watts which would make sense since the new iPhones are believed to feature larger batteries.

Still it is too soon to be absolutely sure. Rumor has it that the new iPhones will be unveiled on September 9th, all we can do now is wait and see if Apple talks about improving its charger as well.

iPhone 6 Charging Adapter Will Be Redesigned For U.S.

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NAPA, Calif. (AP) — Officials in the city of Napa say 15 to 16 buildings are no longer inhabitable after Sunday’s magnitude-6.0 earthquake, and there is only limited access to numerous other structures.

Napa City Manager Mike Parness released the damage details at an afternoon news conference. Officials say they are still assessing buildings in the area.

Parness says the buildings to which only limited access is being granted mostly suffered broken windows.

The magnitude-6.0 earthquake that struck at 3:20 a.m. Sunday about 6 miles from the city of Napa ruptured water mains and gas lines, left two adults and a child critically injured, upended bottles and casks at some of Napa Valley’s famed wineries and sent residents running out of their homes.

The earthquake is the largest to shake the Bay Area since the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake in 1989.