Immaculata student guilty in officer assault

WEST CHESTER >> An Immaculata University student who adopted anti-authoritarian beliefs popular among the “Moorish American” anti-court movement was found guilty Wednesday of assaulting a Malvern police officer by dragging him with her car during an otherwise routine traffic stop.

The jury of seven woman and five men deliberated for about four hours before returning with their verdict in Judge Jacqueline Carroll Cody’s courtroom around 6 p.m. The panel found defendant Janay Rebecca Smith guilty on one felony count of aggravated assault, fleeing or eluding police, recklessly endangering another person, and related charges

Smith, 28, of Philadelphia represented herself in the trial. She has previously questioned the legitimacy of courts in Pennsylvania and has contended that since she is a “Moorish American,” she cannot be judged by current legal authorities. But in contrast to earlier disputes and confrontations she had with Cody — and in past written statements about her anti-court beliefs — she refrained from outbursts or sideshows during the three-day long trial.

In her direct testimony Wednesday, instead of arguing against the authority of the police to stop her the night of the incident, Smith tried to convince the jury that she had meant no harm to the officers involved and had misunderstood what was happening when officers asked her for identification.

“I was afraid, and I panicked,” she said in her brief statement on the witness stand. “I didn’t know that the officer would get hurt. I just want to let you know that wasn’t intentional or knowing.”

But under detailed cross-examination by Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Frei, Smith acknowledged that she had indeed put the officers in danger of physical harm that night, especially

Officer Patrick Dougherty, who was dragged by her car for several feet after she began to speed away from the scene of the stop.

“If you had run him over that night, Officer Dougherty could have died, isn’t that correct?” Frei asked. “I think we all could have died that night,” Smith replied.

“You were in control,” Frei continued. “Nobody yelled at you. Nobody cursed at you. No one struck you. Had you just given them proper identification, none of this

would have happened. Everything that happened was because of your actions. Correct?”

“That’s what I’ve said,” Smith agreed. “But I was scared. It was like a fight or flight moment.”

In their testimony on Tuesday the two Malvern police officers involved said that the incident escalated from a routine traffic stop in the downtown business district of the borough into a frightening encounter and a high-risk pursuit that ended in Smith’s arrest several miles away in Easttown.

Officer Tyler Bury testified that while on patrol around 9:10 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2018, he spotted a black Chevrolet Monte Carlo fail to stop at several stop signs along the King Street corridor running eastbound into the borough. When he attempted to pull the car over, it entered the busy Malvern Shopping Center in the middle of town.

When he asked the driver, later identified as Smith, for her license and registration, she first hesitated and then began questioning him about the stop. What had she done wrong? Who was the victim? What authority did he have to stop her? All are the sort of questions that persons who identify with the “Moorish American” or “Sovereign Citizen” movements pose, because they question whether police have the Constitutional right to stop them for such things as traffic infractions without presenting a warrant.

“She told me that the right to travel is uninhibited, and that I don’t have the right to ever stop her,” Bury testified about Smith’s attitude that night.

At some point Dougherty arrived, first as back up at the scene and later, as Smith’s refusal to comply with providing identification became more pronounced, side by side with Bury at the passenger door. Smith eventually produced two ID cards, which proved to be self-produced “Aboriginal American Native” ID cards that many in the Moorish movement use.

But Bury and Dougherty said that they were not able to match the name on the cards — Janay Rebecca Bey — with any valid driver’s license, and told her she would be taken into custody so they could ascertain her name and address.

When she refused to get out of the car, they began trying to pull her from the driver’s seat and she fought back.

With Bury to the rear and Dougherty closest to the door and holding onto her arm, Smith put the car in gear and hit the accelerator. Bury testified he saw Dougherty dragged between 10 and 20 feet before falling to the ground and rolling over.

A video of the incident from Bury’s dash camera that was played for the jurors showed the Monte Carlo pulling away as Dougherty dropped to the ground and rolled head over heels. Both officers got back in their patrol cars and chased Smith but could not locate her. She was eventually stopped after a short pursuit on Lancaster Avenue in downtown Berwyn by Easttown and Tredyffrin police, about four miles away.

Dougherty, in his testimony, said he had suffered no broken bones or concussions, but that the numbness and pain he felt immediately after the incident increased over time. He missed some time at work as he underwent occupational therapy.

“I definitely needed to go to the hospital,” that night, he told Frei in his testimony. “But I would rather have caught the person who did this.” Asked his reaction to what happened to him, Dougherty answered, “I felt like I’d been hit by a bus.”

“Were you afraid?” asked Frei. “Yes,” the officer answered.

In her closing argument, Smith stressed that she did not believe the prosecution had proven that she had the required intent needed to show she committed aggravated assault. She pulled away from the scene out of fear, not meaning to harm the police.

But Assistant District Attorney Miles Matteson, in his closing argument to the jury, took issue with Smith’s contention that what happened that night was unintentional on her part.

“She said it was a mistake,” Matteson said. “Ladies and gentlemen, a mistake is when you leave your lunch at home, you forget to bring it with you.” Smith dragged a police officer with a car that weighed thousands of pounds that could have seriously injured him. “That was knowing, and intentional.”

She will be sentenced at a later date.