Cop once named Orlando’s officer of the year disciplined
Action taken against Mills after he taunted teen during arrest
An Orlando police officer who was named 2018’s patrol officer of the year was disciplined recently after body camera footage showed him “taunt, belittle, humiliate and even incite … violence” while detaining a teenager for violating a city ordinance in May, an internal investigation found.
Officer Jonathan Mills has previously faced excessive force lawsuits and was given a verbal reprimand after he was accused of making a racist comment to a woman during a traffic stop in March 2016.
Asked whether Mills’ interactions with the public are a concern for OPD Chief Orlando Rolón after the latest incident, OPD spokesman Sgt. David Baker said the chief “is not worried … because discipline is also intended as a corrective measure.”
Baker added, “[w]ith the disciplinary actions taken, Chief Rolón believes Ofc. Mills will conduct himself professionally going forward.”
Mills was named patrol officer of the year for being “the most proactive member on his squad,” the agency wrote in its annual report. He was touted for making more than 100 arrests and confiscating numerous guns and drugs in 2018. Others on his squad
“consider him a leader… motivating and assisting them,” the report said.
Mills detained three teens, two of whom were 19 and one who was 17, on May 10 after another officer had stopped them outside a liquor store in Parramore for loitering.
After reviewing body camera footage of the incident, Mike Stanley, an Internal Affairs investigator, said the video showed Mills interacting with the teens in a way “not representative of the high standards of the professional conduct expected from members of the Orlando Police Department.”
Stanley said Mills was seen on video footage grabbing the hands of one of the teens and saying “[t]hese soft hands have been through something. You have no marks on your knuckles, you’ve never been in a fight,” according to a summary of the investigation.
When he saw another teen talking on his cellphone, Mills grabbed it from him and tossed it on the ground, Stanley wrote.
Mills then said to another one of the teens, “I hope he runs,” according to Stanley.
Mills told Stanley that he grabbed the teen’s hands to “[break] the cycle of whatever he’s thinking about.” But Stanley said video showed there was a screwdriver within the teen’s reach that Mills didn’t remove, calling into question whether the officer thought the young man “posed an immediate threat.”
Mills also said he tossed the other teen’s phone because he was talking “really softly and that made me nervous … almost as if he was trying to conceal his actions.”
But Stanley wrote that Mills’ comment about hoping the man would run “serves to discredit Officer Mills belief [the teen] posed a threat.”
Mills’ actions toward the teens, who Stanley wrote were “detained and seated on the ground in a position of disadvantage,” did not serve a law enforcement purpose, he wrote, and were done “only … to taunt, belittle, humiliate and even incite a person to do violence.”
The investigation, which was obtained by the Orlando Sentinel through a public records request, began after a complaint was submitted to OPD by the mother of a 19-year-old, one of the three teenagers arrested by Mills during the May incident.
The mother, who is black, accused him of racial bias, saying he spoke to her “in an angry and abrupt manner” when she asked why her son was being detained and refused to answer questions about his arrest.
In an incident report, Mills wrote that the teens were “yelling at the officers and causing a disturbance,” so he told them to “move on.”
He said they were slow to leave and blocked the sidewalk with their bikes after he told them repeatedly “to not stop, stand or otherwise impede the flow of traffic on a sidewalk.”
Soon after he detained them, their friends and family members began gathering around. The mother who made the complaint said Mills was “disrespectful, angry and rude.”
But when a white woman who is a mentor to one of the teens approached Mills and began talking to him, the mother wrote in her complaint, he “answered all [the white woman’s] questions and converse[d] with her.”
The mother said she “told him how unfair that is and look[s] like an act of white [privilege].”
In an interview with investigators, the mentor described the scene as “tense” when she arrived from nearby New Image Community Center. She said she felt that she “was able to approach the officers … for reasons based on my visual appearance.”
Mills denied that he acted discourteous or treated the mother differently based on her race, calling her allegations against him “false.” He said he counted the words he said to both women, and determined he spoke more to the mother than to the white mentor.
After reviewing body camera footage of the incident, Stanley said there was insufficient evidence to support the mother’s claims about her interaction with Mills.
While the suspects were detained, there was a period of more than 20 minutes during which the sidewalk was “completely blocked by the placement of the bicycles by the officers which was the reason for the initial stop,” Stanley wrote.
Mills maintained he was trying to diffuse the situation, denying his actions were discourteous. He said the teens were acting “confrontational” and making anti-police comments.
Asked during an interview with Stanley whether he thought Rolón would approve of his actions during the incident, Mills said, “I don’t think I should share my opinions about the Chief.”
When the Sentinel in June asked questions about Mills being named OPD’s 2018 officer of the year, given the history of allegations against him, Rolón launched a review of the agency’s procedure for handing out its annual awards. The honor was not rescinded.
Baker said Rolón “has now made it clear that all Officer of the Year nominees must be vetted through Internal Affairs for discipline history.”
He said employees eligible for a nomination must also be in good standing according to criteria set by OPD’s union contract. To maintain that status, officers must not receive a “below average” mark on any aspects of their most recent evaluation and in the previous year have had no more than three separate disciplinary violations, and no suspensions of more than 32 hours or demotions.
Mills received a verbal reprimand for the May incident, the same punishment he got for violating the same agency policy during the 2016 traffic stop.
Asked why the penalties for both violations were the same, Baker, the OPD spokesman, said the previous violation was no longer part of Mills’ disciplinary record. According to the agency’s union contract, violations that result in a verbal reprimand or written censure are purged from an officer’s disciplinary history after three years.
“It would be considered a first offense again,” Baker said.
He noted OPD’s new contract with its union, which was approved in October but was not in effect when Mills’ discipline was handed down, includes a provision that allows the agency to consider giving the employee a harsher discipline even if a previous violation has been purged.
The teens were arrested for violating a disorderly conduct ordinance. Prosecutors later dropped the cases against at least two of them. Court documents for the 17-year-old were not available because he is a juvenile.