Officer guilty of assault, misconduct in arrest that paralyzed man

Two and a half years after Demonte Ward-Blake was paralyzed during a traffic stop in Prince George’s County, a judge ruled Wednesday that the police officer who arrested him was guilty of second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment in connection with the man’s injuries.

Cpl. Bryant Strong, flanked by 20 officers in the courtroom behind him, showed no reaction as Circuit Court Judge Daneeka V. Cotton read her guilty verdict in the bench trial that started Monday of this high-profile encounter. Cotton deliberated for three hours after hearing testimony from other officers at the scene, use-of-force experts, Ward-Blake’s former fiancee and Strong himself.

As Cotton read each guilty verdict, those there to support the late Ward-Blake in the packed courtroom exhaled in relief.

“Thank Jesus,” said one woman, whose son was killed by Prince George’s police in the 1990s.

“Amen. Amen. Amen,” the family’s civil attorney said.

Ward-Blake’s mother, Rena Ward, slowly smiled as she was hugged by a line of friends, family and State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy.

Ward-Blake died late last year at the age of 26 from injuries he suffered in an unrelated shooting. Before his death, he had used a wheelchair because of his paralysis, which left him mostly immobile from the neck down.

Strong, who is now 32, waived his right to a jury trial and instead chose to have his case heard before the judge alone. He will be sentenced in July and faces up to 10 years in prison.

A grand jury indicted Strong in the fall of 2020, nearly a year after his encounter with Ward-Blake on Oct. 17, 2019, in Oxon Hill on the three misdemeanor charges.

During her ruling, Cotton said her job in reviewing the testimony and evidence was to decide which of the two conflicting versions of the traffic stop was the truth. Though Ward-Blake’s encounter with Prince George’s County police was recorded on cruiser dashcam footage and cellphone video, the assault itself was not.

Both sides agreed on a shared set of facts: that Ward-Blake had been pulled over for expired tags; that he became verbally outraged when a different officer pulled a gun because his girlfriend’s 6-yearold daughter was in the back seat; and that throughout parts of the encounter captured on film he had been compliant with all officer commands, including when he was detained, placed in handcuffs and sat on the curb.

The prosecution and defense also agreed Strong then decided to arrest Ward-Blake for disorderly conduct and walk him to the side of his cruiser, where he conducted a body search.

What came next — the actions that Strong and Ward-Blake took — is where attorneys differed.

Prosecutors argued that Strong had become fed up with WardBlake’s cursing and yelling and snapped, lifting the man’s feet from the ground and slamming him headfirst into the concrete in a maneuver called a “takedown.”

A witness officer who had also responded to the traffic stop testified that soon after her arrival on the scene, she heard a “commotion” near Strong’s police cruiser and turned her head to see WardBlake’s feet in the air at a diagonal and Strong’s feet on the ground.

Prosecutors said her testimony, coupled with similar testimony from Ward-Blake’s girlfriend, Chinayne Pollard, and medical records showing the severity of the man’s injuries, proved Strong had used excessive force to slam the 24-year-old into the ground.

That use of force was reckless, they said, because Ward-Blake was compliant, handcuffed and had no way of breaking his own fall.

Strong’s attorneys, however, argued that Ward-Blake’s paralysis was not the result of a criminal act but an “accident.”

Strong testified that once he took Ward-Blake to the side of his police cruiser, he started searching the man’s upper body and had crouched down by his ankles. At that point, Strong said, Ward-Blake elbowed him in the head — knocking him off balance. The officer testified that, at the same time, Ward-Blake had turned away in an alleged attempt to flee. Strong said he reached for the man’s arm to catch his balance, and the two fell together to the ground.

“This is an accident,” said Strong’s attorney, Shaun Owens. “It’s a freak accident. It’s an unfortunate accident.”

Owens called it a “tragedy” but said tragedies don’t always require blame.

When she delivered her verdict, though, Cotton discounted that theory. The use of force was intentional and not accidental, she said, adding that she was “unpersuaded” that Strong’s testimony was “credible.” The judge called his actions “excessive” and “unjustified.”

Strong, she said, “did not act as a reasonable officer would.”

Strong remains on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the department’s internal affairs investigation, which will proceed now that the criminal trial has concluded.

As Ward-Blake’s supporters streamed out of the courtroom in elated relief, his mother embraced the family’s private attorney, Malcolm Ruff, who is working with William “Billy” Murphy Jr. to sue Strong and Prince George’s County for $75 million.

“That first piece of justice,” Ruff told Ward of the verdict. “That first piece.”

Ward later said the verdict brought her happiness and sadness at the same time.

“I just want my son back,” she said.

If he were still alive, she said he would have testified on his own behalf from his wheelchair. Strong was indicted on his 26th and final birthday, she said, and Ward-Blake was eager to tell his version of events.

“It’s telling,” Ruff added, “that the evidence was so strong even without Demonte’s testimony, which certainly would have straightened out how this happened.”

Braveboy thanked the community for sitting through the trial in support of Ward-Blake’s family, including Black Lives Matter organizers and those who had loved ones killed by police.

“It’s meaningful when you show up,” she said, “because justice happens when you all demand it.”