BODYCAM FOOTAGE AT ISSUE IN COLO. CASE

Colorado prosecutors focused on police body camera footage — both raw and digitally enhanced — as they began building their case Thursday against two officers charged in the death of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who was stopped, put in a neck hold and sedated with ketamine four years ago.

Charges against the officers were brought in 2021 after a revised coroner’s report determined that the powerful sedative given by paramedics to McClain, 23, played a key role in his death.

The two officers on trial, Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, have pleaded not guilty to charges of criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and assault, all felonies.

It is the first of several cases stemming from McClain’s death, with a third officer and two paramedics scheduled for trial later this year.

David Notowitz, an expert in audio and video forensics, testified Thursday that he brightens dark video images and removes distracting sounds like sirens to help present a clearer picture of what was captured by body camera, for use in criminal trials.

The raw video from Aug. 24, 2019, has been publicly released, and includes McClain pleading with officers and telling them, “I can’t breathe.”

However, the enhanced footage compiled by Notowitz, who is a paid expert for the prosecution, has not been previously shown.

Defense attorneys raised objections to some of that footage, which they described as manipulated. Judge Mark Warner said he would allow the jury to see it but issued an instruction for jurors to disregard anything seen or heard in the enhanced video if they could not see or hear it in the original.

Prosecutors introduced the original body camera video through their first witness, Lt. Delbert Tisdale, who oversees the bodycam program at the Aurora Police Department and was not present during the fatal encounter.

McClain, a massage therapist, was stopped while walking home late at night in the Denver suburb of Aurora after a 911 caller reported him as suspicious, saying he was wearing a ski mask even though it was late August. Relatives say McClain wore the mask because anemia made him cold.