Hollywood Banker Claims $50M In Damages After Alleged Police Beating

By admin on August 15, 2012

Brian Mulligan, vice chairman and managing director of Deutsche Bank’s Los Angeles media practice, has filed a claim accusing LAPD officers of beating him without probable cause after a confrontation with police in which he was arrested in May.

Mulligan, who in February hooked up MGM with a $ 500 million credit line, claims he sustained a broken shoulder blade, 15 nasal fractures, facial scars, difficulty smelling and breathing, and damages of as much as $ 50 million, his attorney, J. Michael Flanagan, told Bloomberg in an interview.

And now city prosecutors are considering whether to file charges against Mulligan, 52, who was forcibly subdued in the early morning hours in May by LAPD after trying to enter moving vehicles and then charging officers who approached him, Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Andy Neiman told Bloomberg.

After being detained by police in the Highland Park area (Flanagan declined to say why his client was there) and it was determined that Mulligan was not under the influence of a controlled substance, officers allowed the Hollywood banker to spend the night at a hotel per his request to “sleep it off.”

“They put him in a motel and said, ‘You’re a dead man if you leave here,’” Flanagan told Bloomberg. “Maybe the fact that he had $ 5,000 in cash had something to do with it.”

Flanagan refused to say why Mulligan was carrying so much cash on his person. Police stopped him after he was allegedly seen trying to get into occupied autos in the drive-through lane of a fast-food restaurant.

But Mulligan didn’t listen to the cops and tried to flee the motel, before being apprehended about six blocks away, where he was beaten and arrested, Flanagan said. Now Mulligan is seeking $ 50 million in damages.

The erratic behavior was especially bizarre for Mulligan, an established banker who specializes in financing for Hollywood film and television studios.

Mulligan joined Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank in 2009 and previously was chairman of Brooknol Advisors LLC, an entertainment advisement and investment firm. Before that he had senior executive roles at Seagram Co., Universal Pictures and Fox Television. In February, he participated in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.’s $ 500 million credit facility deal.