Officials conspired to hide info about ex-NFL player’s arrest: Lawyers
ATLANTA — Police and elected officials in a Georgia county tried to cover up the use of excessive force during the arrest of a former college football player and the fact that they knew about it before video of the arrest went viral, his lawyers said Monday.
Henry County police arrested Desmond Marrow on Dec. 2 while responding to reports of a road rage situation. In a lawsuit filed Monday in Henry County State Court, Marrow’s lawyers said the officers violated his rights and that police and elected officials worked together on a coverup.
County spokeswoman Melissa Robinson said in an email that the county doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
After video of the arrest circulated widely online in April, lawyers for Marrow called for the officers involved to be fired and for criminal charges filed against Marrow to be dropped.
In the one-minute video clip, officers can be seen forcefully taking a handcuffed Marrow to the ground by sweeping his legs out from under him as he yells, “I’m not even fighting back.” When he’s on the ground, an officer puts his hand on Marrow’s throat for several seconds and Marrow says, “I can’t breathe,” while another officer tells him to settle down.
Police said at the time that the internal affairs unit had done an initial use of force review but that Chief Mark Amerman had ordered an internal affairs investigation and placed an officer on administrative duty.
Two weeks later, Amerson announced the internal affairs investigation had found that officer David Rose used unnecessary force and also was recorded on his in-car video camera system saying that he had choked Marrow and that he wasn’t going to include that information in his report. Rose was fired.
The same day, Henry County District Attorney Darius Pattillo said no felony charges would be brought against Marrow and that the misdemeanour charges would be turned over to the county solicitor general for review.
Marrow’s lawyers applauded Amerson’s swift action and the dropping of the charges.
“We’re happy that this chief stepped forward and is holding the officer who choked Desmond accountable and getting him off the force,” attorney L. Chris Stewart told The Associated Press at the time.
But it was all a sham, Stewart said Monday.
In reviewing documents produced in response to an open records request, Marrow’s attorneys discovered that a full internal affairs investigation had already been conducted in December, days after the arrest. Then-Major Mike Ireland indicates in a report dated Dec. 7 that he reviewed Rose’s in-car video, a second video shot by a citizen, 911 calls, witness statements and the officers’ reports.
Ireland, who has since been promoted to deputy chief, found that the officers complied with policy. The placement of Rose’s hand on Marrow’s neck “does not appear to be intentional,” the report provided to reporters by Marrow’s attorneys says.
In a second internal affairs report dated May 4, Smith, who also heads the department’s internal affairs unit, indicates that Rose can be heard on dashcam video telling Donaldson, “I’m not gonna write it down but hell yeah, I choked that (expletive).”
Rose didn’t deny saying that but said he didn’t remember and that it must have been made “in the bravado of the situation,” the report says. Donaldson told Smith his attention was divided and that if Rose said that, “it went in one ear and out the other.”
The police and elected officials named in the lawsuit were all “fully aware of the false report created by Defendant Ireland and the dash cam audio which captured Defendants Rose and Donaldson planning to hide their use of excessive force,” the lawsuit says.
Henry County Solicitor General Pam Bettis on Thursday charged Marrow with misdemeanour obstruction of officers, reckless driving and aggressive driving and a county ordinance violation of disorderly conduct.
Bettis told the AP that her office convened a citizen panel to review the case, an unusual step that she said was taken because of the high-profile and divisive nature of the case. The panel met for four hours and agreed with all the charges.
Marrow’s attorneys told reporters that they notified the county in mid-July that they had uncovered a conspiracy to cover up the officers’ use of force and the initial investigation. They called the charges filed last week “a clear attempt to silence Mr. Marrow.”
Marrow played football at the University of Toledo in Ohio but wasn’t drafted out of college. He signed a contract in 2012 with the Houston Texans but was cut during preseason. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked him up but he didn’t make the team.
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