Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 September 2003 — Page 2
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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2003
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IPD BEATING ► Continued from Page 1 the police and Snider’s friends, Snider responded with a similar eurse, telling the "motherf ” that the group was parked in this garage. "The next thing I knew I was falling baek into the Coke machine,” Snider says, “Then one guy was holding me, and some others were punching me and kicking me. Then they maced me and I went to my knees.” Snider, who had never been arrested before, soon learned that the men were police oflicers. He was handcuffed and placed facefirst and bleeding on the floor of the parking garage. Snider says one of the officers then stepped up and kicked him in the nose. Eventually, an ambulance
came for Snider. He was locked to a stretcher and taken to Wishard Hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. Three staples were placed in his head to close a wound. Then Snider was taken to the Marion County Lockup, where he was held until posting a $10,000 bond on preliminary charges of resisting arrest and battery on a police officer. A statement by Indianapolis Police Department Officer James Rusk differs in part from Snider's version of the events. In the statement, Rusk says that he and Officer Nick Mitchell were working off-duty employment at the parkinggarage, Union Station SclfTark, on May 10, when they encountered Snider. (Through an IPD spokes-
person, both Rusk and Mitchell declined comment for this article.) In the statement, Rusk says he asked Snider and his group if they had cars parked in the garage, and Snider replied, “Yeah, motherf— , we’re parked here.” Rusk’s statement does not say whether he and Mitchell identified themselves as police officers. Sniderandotherwitnessessaythey did not. After Snider’s response, Rusk says he then walked up to Snider and asked him to repeat himself. Rusk says that Snider shoved him in the chest. “At this time, M r. Snyder (sic) then backed up and squared up, as if to fight,” Rusk wTote. Rusk says that he and Officer Mitchell then grabbed Snider and, when Snider swung
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his arms, shoved him against a w all and door, causing a cut to his head. Sniderwas“directed”totheground, according to Rusk’s statement, and sprayed twice in the face with chemical spray because he refused to put his hands behind his back. When Officer Rusk’s statement was read to Darrell Henderson, one of Snider’s friends who witnessed the encounter, Henderson laughed during several portions. “I don’t recall much of that happening,” he said. Instead, Henderson and another witness and Snider friend, Brooks Cannon, a graduate student at the University ofArkansas, both say that the IPD officers responded immediately and violently to Snider’s curse. The cop just said, ‘What did you say to me, boy?’, then he ran over and pushed Jason into the vending machine,” Henderson says. “Jason still didn’t know who it was, so he pushed back, and that was when three or four others (police officers)jumped in and started kickingthes— out of
him.”
In a sworn statement provided to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, Cannon agreed with Snider’s and Henderson’s account of police beating ayoung man who could not see his attackers. “At the point all of this happened, Jason is doing nothing but putting his hands up, you know, around his face, trying to protect himself because he is being hit with closed fists, he is being kneed, he is being kicked, excessive amounts of pepper spray were used,” Cannon said. This incident occurred in the midst of others involving alleged brutality by Indianapolis Police Department officers. Two IPD officers were arrested last week on charges of battery arising out of an off-duty Broad Ripple fight on April 3, and three more I P D officers were suspended after a WRTV-6 helicopter videotape showed them punchingNeariah Blackwell, a suspected car thief, after a chase in
July.
After an uncharacteristically lengthy delay of more than two months, during which time Snider’s lawyer Eric Jodka provided the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office with sworn statements by witnesses, Prosecutor Carl Brizzi filed three criminal charges against Jason Snider in July. The charges include felony counts of battery on a law enforcement offi er and resisting law enforcement and a misdemeanor resisting charge. The charges were bolstered by a new statement by Officer Rusk alleging that he asked Snider to move away from him “because he was too close for Officer Rusk’s personal safety” before Rusk “gently” pushed Snider back
a few steps.
Through a spokesperson, Brizzi declined comment on the decision to file charges against Snider. But recent Brizzi decisions on allegations of police beatings have him sharing the unwanted spotlight with IPD. Last week, Brizzi declined to file criminali charges against the three IPD officers seen on the WRTV video punching Blackwell. Also, some local criminal defense and civil rights attorneys say the filingof’charges against Snider is reminiscent of a familiar [unsavory prosecutorial practice, 'tribunal resisting arrest charges are sometimes filed against persons injured by police officers, but dismissed if the victim - intimidated by the specter of a felony record - agrees to the facts alleged by the police, an agreement that cripples a potential civil rights
claim.
Others lawyers say Brizzi’s recent decisions are indicative of a failure to properly examine police witnesses’ credibility when determining whether to file charges. Indianapolis criminal defense attorney Luther Garcia has four clients, all with no prior criminal history, facing separate charges of resisting arrest or intimidation arising out of verbal challenges to police officers. “I have never seen so many allegations of battery on officers that have as their only evidence the officer’s statement," Garcia says. “An officer’s word is never called into question by the prosecutor’s office, and I think that is part of the problem.’’ Jason Snider has healed from his injuries, but lie admits to being worried about both the felony charges and what may happen the next time he goes out. “It really makes you wonder about who we are trusting to protect us,” he says. “Who do you call for help when four cops are heating you up?”
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