The Legal Arena

Florida deputies chased a suspected drug dealer for a mile before he stopped, raised his arms, fell to his knees and laid himself facedown on the ground in an obvious attempt at surrender.
The five Marion County deputies then hopped out of a truck and proceeded to beat him for 30 seconds; kneeing him, kicking him, punching him – all while yelling “stop resisting.”
They later claimed Derrick Price was combative and resisting, which was why he had a black eye in his mugshot.
But Price accused them of excessive force and a surveillance video proved him right.

An NYPD cop speeding on his police scooter lost control and ran into an elderly man crossing the street, sending the man flying head over heels and leaving him injured in the street.
New York City police officer Thomas Hopper then cited Jose Flores for jaywalking, accusing him of endangering the life of an officer by stepping in front of him, even though a surveillance video shows Flores looked both ways before crossing.
It also shows that Hopper had lost control and that the scooter was skidding on its side when it slammed into Flores on August 7, 2012.

A Connecticut state trooper seized a man’s camera, telling him it was illegal to record, then made the mistake of allowing the camera to continue to record as he conjured up false charges against the man with another trooper.
“We gotta cover our ass,” Trooper First Class John Barone explained to the other trooper.

A Massachusetts man who was arrested on wiretapping charges for video recording a cop in front of his home yelling profanities into a phone was awarded a $72,500 settlement Monday.
George Thompson, a lifelong cook, said he is investing the money into a food truck named Bozo’s – in honor of the cop who arrested him – Fall River police officer Thomas Barboza.
Barboza, who received a one-day suspension for the profanities, is more than welcome to dine at Bozo’s after it opens this summer, Thompson said in an interview with Photography is Not a Crime Monday evening.

A Texas police officer who tasered a city councilman last year, claiming the man was wrestling with him while refusing to obey his commands – only for a dash cam video to prove he lied – is now being criminally charged.
Prairie View police officer Michael Kelley was indicted by a grand jury Friday on a official oppression charge.

The way Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy Jason Franqui described it, he was about to be run over by a madman in a minivan.
He even made eye contact with him as the driver, who turned the steering wheel directly into his path in a final stare-d0wn before attempting to kill him.
Naturally, Franqui feared for his life and pulled out his gun, firing six shots, striking the 17-year-old Down syndrome boy who had taken his family’s minivan without permission for a low-speed joyride through the western suburbs of the county on a single flat-tire.

In an odd turn of events, a 16-year-old was charged with a DUI in Washington after a Spokane police officer ran a red light, crashed into the teenager and then blamed him for the accident.
Officer Seth Killian, who has been awarded countless accolades throughout his law enforcement career, was distracted and ran a red light on December 8 crashing into the teenager’s vehicle.
He even admitted to being at fault in the moments after the crash.
“I screwed up, man,” a distraught Killian is heard telling another officer in a conversation captured on his body cam.

A New Jersey cop who did not think twice about lying on a police report to send a man to prison was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday without the eligibility of parole.
And only because his dash cam contradicted his police report.
Otherwise, it may have been Marcus Jeter sentenced to prison on charges of eluding, resisting arrest, aggravated assault and attempting to disarm a police officer.

More than a year after he and his wife were fired from an Indiana sheriff’s office for a scandal involving $250,000 that went missing, the former deputy was arrested for having used his patrol car to protect a massive drug operation while he was still employed.
And that comes just more than a year after Jason Wood and his wife, Teresa, were arrested for possession of synthetic drugs, specifically Spice, a synthetic type of marijuana that was made illegal in 2012 after it was proven to be much more dangerous than natural marijuana.

Another award-winning law enforcement officer was stripped of his badge Tuesday after accepting a plea deal to avoid going to trial for perjury.
Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy Stuart Sussman – the department’s 2014 Deputy of the Year – was probably shellshocked the perjury charges were brought against him in the first place considering how often it happens in law enforcement.