Sheriff defends deputy’s use of force

Says cellphone video only showed a glimpse of what took place

POMPANO BEACH As one, two, and now three videos have surfaced in recent weeks showing what looks like deputies manhandling high school students and a hospitalized man, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has been grappling with the resulting public outrage and pushback.

On Monday, for the third time in recent weeks, a cellphone video led to accusations of a deputy’s excessive use of force.

It showed a Feb. 21 scuffle as a school deputy at Blanche Ely High School took a 17-year-old student, Jordan Bennett, to the ground and held him down.

The boy’s parents hired a civil rights attorney and together they held a Monday morning press conference to address the “brutalization” of yet another child at the hands of a Broward sheriff ’s deputy.

“Jordan Bennett left school that day in an ambulance instead of a school bus; he went home that evening with stitches and now has a permanent scar,” the Bennett’s lawyer, Jasmine Rand, said.

Jordan’s mother said she had to make a stand for her son.

“This is not an isolated incident,” Debbie Russell-Bennett said. “The sheriff ’s deputies abuse our black and brown children on a regular basis here in Broward County.”

Sheriff Tony responded hours later with his own conference.

The video of the interaction between Bennett and the deputy in the cafeteria of the Pompano Beach school only showed a 20-second glimpse of a 360-degree incident, Tony said.

“My message is the same and it’s not going to change,” the sheriff said. “If my deputies step out of line and they violate policies and protocols, if they breach and use any form of excessive force, they will be held accountable.”

“But when they are right, also stand here and tell you he said.

The other cases raising cries of excessive use of force in recent weeks involved Delucca Rolle, a 15-year-old who was peppersprayed by a deputy in Tamarac on April 18 and had his forehead slammed into the pavement.

David Rafferty O’Connell’s case from January next came to light. He was handcuffed to a hospital bed when a deputy punched him, bodycam footage showed.

Both of those cases resulted internal affairs investigations.

That is because a review of those cases raised questions that called for closer scrutiny “to make sure that the application of force is consistent with what the state says, policy says and what my expectation is,” Tony said.

Bennett’s case would that route, Tony said.

The deputy’s report, school surveillance-camera footage and bodycam recordings did not support Bennett’s accusations of excessive use of force, he said.

The incident report documenting Bennett’s takedown said Bennett had choked a school custodian and reacted aggressively and angrily when the deputy responded.

As the deputy and vice principal walked Bennett out of the cafseven news I will that,” not in go

eteria, the student started flailing wildly, nearly knocking down the vice principal, the report said.

That’s when the deputy took Bennett to the ground and handcuffed him.

“It should be noted that [Bennett] is 6-feet, 1-inch, weighs 185 pounds and is a student athlete,” the report said.

The video footage clearly showed an aggressive and hostile, out-ofcontrol student who needed to be subdued, Tony said.

“There was no punching. There was no kicking. There was no further application of force,” he said.

As for Bennett’s bleeding gash over his eye, that was a repercussion of his own behavior, Tony said.