An undercover Michigan cop with an FBI agent beat up an innocent man, then stopped to force bystanders to delete all footage of the actual incident.
James King was walking down the street to his job at Geek Group when had the misfortune of encountering undercover FBI agent, Doug Brownback as well as his tagalong: Grand Rapids police detective, Todd Allen, who was also working undercover.
Even though James King was the victim, Allen and Brownback charged him with assault with intent to commit great bodily harm, aggravated assault of a police officer and resisting arrest after being beat up as you can see in the video below.
The two Michigan lawmen were really looking for wanted home invasion suspect Aaron Davidson, and they had a warrant for his arrest.
They’d heard Davidson was in the area.
The two cops thought they had their man when James King came walking down the street.
And while there are no videos of the struggle, since officer Morris had witnesses delete them.
In the aftermath, we are left with photographs that show just how severe the beating really was
The Michigan Cop and FBI Agent Tried an Illegal “Stop and Frisk” on James King
Allen and Brownback leaned up against a black SUV.
“Who are you?” they asked King.
“James.”
“Do you have any identification?”
“No,” replied the innocent man.
Michigan doesn’t have a stop and identify law, so King had no legal obligation to provide ID either.
FBI Agent Browback then patted the back of “James'”pants and told him get up against the SUV and put his hands on his head.
Brownback and Allen thought they’d found Aaron Davidson.
Innocent Man James King on left, criminal suspect Aaron Davidson on right
They were wrong. They’d found James King.
King initially complied, and got up against the SUV.
But then Brownback removed his wallet.
That’s when King started begging and pleading with passersby to call the police.
“Are you mugging me?”
Brownback restrained King while he pleaded to bystanders for help.
The cop and federal agent had a photo of him from Facebook, but it was poor quality. And a description of a man between 5’10”-6’3” tall.
They were convinced they had Davidson.
So while Brownback restrained King, Allen put a chokehold on him and choked him unconscious, according to the lawsuit.
Grainy black and white photo of Aaron Davidson
Allen and Brownback whaled on King as ‘hard has they could, as fast as they could and as many times as they could,’ according the lawsuit.
When he regained consciousness, he bit officer Allen on his arm in a last bid effort to save his own life from the two plain-clothed officers who he thought were mugging him–and may kill him.
And that just resulted in them beating him more.
Several bystanders called the police.
One caller said, “I was on the phone with 911 like “there’s these two guys pounding this guy and everybody is screaming, ‘Call 911!”
Another told dispatch, “Yeah, they was fucking him up. They were pounding his head for no reason. They were being brutal. They was beating him up. . . . ”
Uniformed police finally showed up and sorted it out.
The undercover FBI agent and the undercover cop had the wrong guy.
They had James King.
Not Aaron Davis.
A dash cam captured the several Grand Rapids police officers showing up.
Among the uniform officers who arrived on the scene was Grand Rapids officer Connie Morris.
Dash cam video captured Morris ordering several bystanders to delete any video of the event.
“No, no, no,” the cop said, “we got undercover officers there. No pictures.”
“Delete it. Delete it. It’s for the safety of the officers,” he continued.
“Everybody has cameras . . . All we used to do was tell the story; we didn’t have a picture to tell the story with, right?” said the officer
“Did you delete it?” the Michigan cop shamelessly asked bystanders.
“We don’t need no pictures.”
So they charged King with a few felonies anyway, just to protect their own jobs and avoid liability.
Allen booked King into the Kent County Jail.
King posted bond a couple days later and went to trial thereafter.
A jury acquitted him on all the charges.
King and his family “spent their life savings on legal counsel” to defend him on the criminal charges.
His new civil lawsuit that stemmed from the beating seeks monetary compensation for damages including “pain and suffering, emotional and mental harms, legal expenses, lost wages, diminished future earning potential, and medical expenses.”
The lawsuit named three defendants: Todd Allen, Douglas Brownback and Connie Morris.
King’s attorneys allege violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by the three individuals.
Police eventually caught up with the real Aaron Davison.
He was convicted of second-degree home invasion and sentenced in August 2015 to 1-½ to 15 years in prison.
Now, taxpayers face the burden to make James King whole again.
Update: the video under the lawsuit captures just how confused James King was after being attacked by the undercover lawmen.
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