TESTIMONY CONTINUES IN TRIAL OF BOYNTON COPS
Victim not expected to testify in civil-rightsviolation case.
WEST PALM BEACH — After spending a day hearing federal prosecutors describe the “beat down” they claim three Boynton Beach police officers gave a passenger in a car that struck a fellow cop, a jury on Wednesday got to see the injuries inflicted on the man a witness said was seat-belted in the car as officers pummeled him.
Abrasions and cuts dotted the face and neck of Jeffrey Braswell in photos that were beamed onto computer screens in front of the ON FACEBOOK
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jury. Another photo, also taken by a police crime scene investigator, showed marks on his arms and a bandage on his shoulder that Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Osborne suggested were the result of being shot by a Taser during his August 2014 arrest.
The photos are the closest the jury is likely to get to seeing Braswell. Osborne told U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg she doesn’t plan to call the 29-year-old Lake Worth man as a witness against officer Michael Brown and former officers Ronald Ryan and Justin Harris, who are charged with violating Braswell’s civil rights by hitting and kicking him without justification and then falsifying reports to cover up their misdeeds.
Osborne has also asked that attorneys representing the three officers refrain from mentioning Braswell’s lengthy record, mainly on criminal traffic and misdemeanor charges. Four months before the incident, he was released from state prison after serving three years on a charge of aggravated battery.
But, despite her insistence that the officers’ attorneys shouldn’t
talk about Braswell’s criminal history, Osborne emphasized that Braswell was charged only with obstruction without violence in connection with the incident. Court records show he pleaded guilty, adjudication was withheld and he was ordered to pay $253 in court costs.
Detective Charles Ramos testified that he charged Braswell with the misdemeanor and gave him a notice to appear in court after talking briefly to Ryan and said he may have talked to Brown. He said he never talked to Harris. He said he also inter- viewed Braswell after Ryan told him “this guy will talk to you.”
While legal rules blocked Ramos from telling the jury what, if anything, Braswell said about the circumstances of his arrest, Ramos said that it isn’t his job to investigate claims of excessive force.
Ramos said he “cut and paste” Ryan’s report in the document he used to charge Braswell with obstruction, similar to resisting arrest without violence. Ryan wrote that Braswell “refused several loud verbal commands to exit the vehicle at which time Ofc. Brown deployed his X 26 Taser striking the subject in the right leg and chest.”
Later in a report sent to the State Attorney’s Office in connection with the arrest of Byron Harris, who was driving the car, Osborne said Ryan’s account as well as those given by Brown and Justin Harris changed. In their updated reports, they revealed they had kicked and punched Braswell. Ramos said he never saw the updates.
Osborne claims the three officers changed their reports after they learned that their actions were videotaped by a Palm Beach County sher- iff ’s helicopter that had been summoned to help them track the car that led nine officers on a 20-mile chase on Interstate 95 from Gateway Boulevard in Boynton to Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach and ended on South A Street in Lake Worth.
Sgt. Philip Antico is also accused of helping the offi- resistance vs. active resiscers change their reports. tance” and was “getting While he is attending the jerked back and forth.” trial, he will face a different He testified Tuesday that jury at a later time. Braswell refused to get out of
The chase began after the the car because he couldn’t. car Byron Harris was driv- He was restrained by a seat ing struck officer Jeffrey Wilbelt, Monteith testified. liams, who was throwing stop On Wednesday, under sticks on the road to block the questioning from attorney car that refused to stop from Robert Adler, who represents getting on I-95. Williams was Ryan, Monteith blamed the also hit by a police cruiser chaos that erupted on A trailing the fleeing car and Street, in part, on the fact was critically injured. that only one supervisor —
To stop the car on A Street, Antico — was on duty and Brown disabled it, by ramcouldn’t leave the city as he ming into it. Osborne said attended to Williams and perBrown never revealed his formed other duties. actions, which violated While Antico’s voice could departmental policy. be heard on a tape recording
But, attorney Bruce Rein- of radio conversations police hart, who represents Brown, had during the chase, Adler claimed Brown asked the argued that the officers were crime scene investigator to largely on their own. take photos of his departOnce the fleeing car was ment-issued SUV to docu- disabled by Brown, Monteith ment the damage. said he expected the officers
Some of the most damag- to instigate a “felony stop.” ing testimony came from offi- That would have meant officer Patrick Monteith, who cers stayed back, commandalso was involved in the ing those in the car to get chase. Spending roughly four out with their arms raised. hours on the stand on TuesInstead, he said, officers day and Wednesday, he said “swarmed the car,” pulling Braswell posed no threat to out Braswell, Byron Harris the officers. His hands were and Ashley Hill. All were open, as he tried to block bloodied and taken to the “strikes” from “two baldhospital for treatment. Byron headed officers,” he said. Harris recieved $600,000 Brown and Ryan are bald. from the city to settle a lawHarris has close-cropped suit, claiming it and several hair. officers violated his civil
Under questioning from rights. Hill settled a similar Reinhart, Monteith acknowl- lawsuit for $40,000. edged that he told a grand The prosecution is expected jury in 2015 that he couldn’t to rest its case today. The trial see Braswell’s hands. Instead, is to conclude next week. he told the grand jury that
Braswell offered “passive