Officer says he violated policy by not taping arrest

[Judi Lynn]

Aug. 17, 2005, 12:58AM

Officer says he violated policy by not taping arrest
He says suspect started to struggle before he could turn on camera
By KEVIN MORAN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

GALVESTON - A Galveston police officer admitted that he violated department policy by failing to turn on a camera that would have recorded the scene that led to allegations he and his partner beat and kicked a man who was not resisting arrest.
The alleged beating victim, Patrick James Woods, is on trial on a charge of resisting arrest after patrolmen James Stewart and Mark Davis spotted Woods and two other men standing in a traffic lane of 28th on May 8.The officers testified Tuesday that they thought Woods and the other men, who ran away, were involved in a drug deal at the time.

Stewart testified that he did not turn on his patrol-car emergency lights, which also activate the car's video and audio taping system, when he and Davis stopped Woods.

Stewart said he also could have turned on the system using a switch on a microphone in his shirt pocket, but Woods started a struggle before he could activate the system from outside the patrol car. Stewart said department policy requires activation of the taping system to provide a record of what goes on during traffic stops for use as evidence.

Woods' case came to light after Sheridan Lorenz, a Galveston resident and daughter of developer George Mitchell, filed an affidavit in the misdemeanor criminal case saying she saw the two officers beating Woods while he was handcuffed. Lorenz since has said through attorney Anthony Griffin that Woods might not have been handcuffed at the time but that he was not resisting officers who were kicking and beating him. Lorenz watched the action from her car, just a few yards from the struggle.
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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3313851
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[zbdent]

1. Yeahhhh

righhhhhhhht . . .

"Whoops, I just plumb forgot . . ."