By Todd Ruger
Sarasota Herald Tribune
SARASOTA, Fla. — A police officer is under investigation after a video surveillance camera at the Sarasota County jail recorded him kicking and stepping on a man who was handcuffed.
The tape shows Officer Christopher Childers pull a squad car into the jail’s sallyport area with Juan G. Perez, 21, with his hands handcuffed behind him in the back seat about 8 p.m. on June 26.
Childers remains in the front seat as Perez shimmies out the squad car’s open back window and falls face-first onto the pavement, the video shows. The officer walks around the car and stands by Perez.
Minutes later, as Perez is trying to stand up, Childers apparently kicks him in the chest, then kicks him again. Perez falls back to the ground and Childers stands with his foot on Perez for five minutes.
While Childers stands with his foot on the inmate’s torso, two other law enforcement officers walk over to see what is going on and then go about their business.
Childers and another officer later pull Perez up and take him into the jail. He is brought back to the squad car, staggering but on his feet.
Perez was driven to the hospital, where police said his blood-alcohol content tested at almost three times the legal limit.
Childers was put on administrative leave with pay Monday, police spokesman Capt. Bill Spitler said. That is the same day the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office released a copy of the video to the Herald-Tribune in response to a public records request.
Spitler declined to comment on the video or the ongoing investigation. The spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, which released the videos from the jail’s entrance, called it “an active criminal investigation.”
An expert on policing issues at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City watched the video and said some of the officer’s actions could be justified, depending on the circumstances.
The video did not capture sound, so it is difficult to say whether the officer felt threatened by Perez, or whether Perez was attempting to escape, said Maria “Maki” Haberfeld, a professor at John Jay.
However, when the other officers walk over to Childers as he stands with his foot on the inmate, it is clear the officers are in no danger, Haberfeld said.
“There was no need to keep him on the ground,” she said. “It’s not justified.”
Perez, a native of Guatemala who does not speak English, was arrested that night on charges of disorderly intoxication and obstructing an officer without violence.
In an affidavit on the incident, Childers wrote that he arrived at Second Street and Links Avenue to find Perez waving both arms over his head and “blurting out in Spanish.”
Paramedics had left the area and a security officer was trying to calm down Perez, who was bleeding from the mouth and ears and appeared to be intoxicated, according to Childers’ report.
Childers said he handcuffed Perez when he refused to stop moving, and Perez moved away, so Childers “redirected the defendant to the grass.”
Speaking through an interpreter on Tuesday, Perez said he was fine until the police showed up.
He said he drank alcohol at his cousin’s birthday party at his home that afternoon, and then went to work.
Perez works in a restaurant kitchen, and said he left work to go home because the heat made him feel sick.
He said the officer, identified in police reports as Childers, asked for his ID, and told him he was going to be taken to the hospital.
Perez admits his memory of that afternoon is hazy, but he says he did not resist. He says the officer started yelling at him, squirted him with pepper spray and took him to the ground.
Perez said Childers stepped on the back of his head, and then its side, causing his nose and lips to bleed and scraping the side of his face. He said he had bruises on both sides of his torso, as well as on several spots on his thighs. The scrapes on his face can be seen in his jail photo.
Childers, a former Army Airborne Ranger who has worked as a detective and on a specialized neighborhood enforcement team, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
A police officer since 2000, Childers has five previous excessive force complaints against him, according to his personnel file. Four of those complaints were found to be unfounded by the Police Department, and one person withdrew her complaint.
The most recent complaint came in 2006 from a man who said Childers slammed him face down on the floor and kicked him. Ernest Wilson told police in an e-mail that “Childers is a loose cannon just waiting to go off.”
Witnesses said they saw Wilson take a swing at Childers before any physical confrontation and the allegation was determined to be unfounded.
Childers also was accused of excessive force in arresting a former president of the local NAACP chapter.
Walter Gilbert complained about Childers and two other officers who tackled him and arrested him after he walked away as they tried to question him.
The misdemeanor obstruction of justice charge lodged against Gilbert that night was dropped after prosecutors said police had no reason to stop Gilbert in the first place.
Gilbert sued the city. The lawsuit was settled in 2004, court records show.
The police department investigated and concluded that Gilbert’s complaint was unfounded.
Copyright 2009 Sarasota Herald-Tribune