OPD officers to testify against accused cop in beating case

An Orlando police officer went on trial Monday, facing accusations he battered a suspect who had been subdued and handcuffed.

Five-year veteran Officer Chase Fugate faces up to a year in jail if found guilty of punching a handcuffed suspect in the face last year.

Fugate is one of four Orlando police officers arrested in the past year and accused of using excessive force.

Unlike most police brutality case, two fellow OPD officers already provided prosecutors with eyewitness accounts corroborating what an alleged victim said happened on the night of June 13, 2014.

Prosecutor Ryan Williams said in opening arguments both officers broke a police code of silence to never tell on another cop.

Defense attorney David Bigney countered both officers were inexperienced and didn’t recognize that Fugate used an approved open-palm strike to keep the handcuffed suspect from possibly fleeing.

Fugate belongs to the police department’s tactical unit, which focuses on high-crime areas rather than respond to routine service calls. The unit is known for numerous gun and drug arrests.

Records state Ronald “Nucci” McFadden, 24, was driving a convertible that night and sped away when Fugate tried to pull him over for driving with a possibly stolen tag. McFadden and a cousin, Eric Burton Jr., then 14, abandoned the car at a Ramada Inn near the corner of John Young Parkway and Interstate 4 when other officers stopped them walking in the area.

Fugate showed up minute later.

“Officer Fugate approached the driver and gave him a right hook in the face, causing ... the driver to fall down horizontally and ... he remained there,” Officer Christopher Ehlers stated, according to court records. “He also said something along the lines of ‘Don’t you ever (expletive) run from me again.’ ”

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Ehler’s partner, Officer Kyle Medvetz gave a similar account.

“An Orlando police officer I have never met before approached the driver as he sat handcuffed on the ground and smacked him in the face,” Medvetz told an investigator, records show. “The officer took my handcuffs off the suspect, replaced them with his and I left the scene.”

Prosecutors later dropped charges against McFadden of car theft and fleeing police, records show. Burton, now 15, was not arrested.

Testimony in Fugate’s trial resumes at 9 a.m. today at the Orange County Courthouse.

Hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com