By Carol Malley, The Republican (Massachusetts)
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - In video images shot in the Police Department lobby, three people are seen talking to an officer behind the front desk window when the situation suddenly explodes.
Ten police officers descend on them from two separate entrances to the lobby and Lt. Thomas M. Kelly puts one man in a choke hold. Although no punches appear to be thrown in the Sept. 28 incident, several officers wrestle the man to the ground.
Capt. Robert T. McFarlin, shift commander, billy club in hand, joins the melee, and Lucy Jones, 52, ends up on the ground. At some point in the scuffle, Jones comes out of her shoes.
A second man is also wrestled to the ground.
Jones said McFarlin used his billy club on her, but his lawyer denies it and the video doesn’t clearly show the baton hitting anyone.
The video, involving three black civilians and a group of officers headed by white superior officers, was released just days after a controversial decision by the Police Commission not to pursue charges against five white officers involved in a police brutality complaint involving a black school principal.
The three civilians - all of whom face charges in the incident - say it’s the latest example of a history of police harassment against their family. The Jones family has successfully filed police misconduct charges in the past involving another officer.
Police Commission Chairman Timothy J. Ryan Tuesday held a three-hour closed-door hearing on the incident to determine if there are grounds for disciplinary action against McFarlin and Kelly. The officers - who are known to be outside of the police chief’s inner circle - are the only two whose behavior is being investigated under an internal probe initiated by Police Chief Paula C. Meara, according to Melinda M. Phelps, lawyer for Kelly and McFarlin.
The video is the second obtained by The Republican related to police misconduct complaints. The previous incident resulted in a 15-day suspension for an officer accused of punching a suspect and knocking out two of his teeth.
Ryan said the hearing on the most recent case was continued to a date to be determined. After the hearing is concluded, he will make a report to the full commission, he said.
Because there is no sound to the video, it was not clear what led to the scuffle.
The three people involved were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace and resisting arrest.
Arrested were Jones of 1847 Parker St., William S. Owens Jr., 31, of 837 State St., and Wilfred Godbolt, 43, of 65 Pendleton St. Their trial is scheduled for April 5.
They said they went to the police station because police tried to deliver to Jones’ home a warrant for Owens and his sister Nicole Jones - an unsuccessful mayoral candidate in 2001 - to appear in court as a victim and witness in an assault case in which Owens was the victim. Owens does not live with his mother, Lucy Jones, he said.
Lucy Jones said police came to her house three times that day and night. She did not open the door to them.
Owens said he went to the police station to get the warrant and to ask police not to bother his mother.
Jones, Owens and Godbolt said they did nothing to provoke police, they were never asked to leave the station and they did not resist arrest.
But the police report filed in the District Court case against the three residents says they were arrested after Owens used profanity while complaining about police coming to his mother’s house “at these hours” looking for him. It says they refused an order to leave, and Jones and Godbolt attempted to interfere with the arrest of Owens by “thrashing their bodies at officers.”
McFarlin said previously that Jones was arrested “without incident.”
On the tape she is clearly seen hitting the floor, but it is not clear whether she was pushed or fell. McFarlin appeared to be holding her just before she hit the floor.
Phelps said McFarlin never touched Jones. She said Jones grabbed the end of the baton and McFarlin pulled it back, causing Jones to fall.
Phelps said there was no use of excessive force, and there has been no charge of excessive force. She pointed out the chief, not the three residents, initiated the investigation of the two officers.
Meara could not be reached for comment.
Lucy Jones said the video is evidence of a history of police mistreatment of her family. In 2002 a police officer not connected to this incident was suspended for a day and had a letter of reprimand placed in his file related to a police brutality complaint the Joneses filed in a 1999 incident at a convenience store they then owned on Boston Road.
According to Owens, when he asked Officer Ramon Santana to “please” have the police stop going to his mother’s house, Santana said, “Shut up or I’m going to arrest your (ass).”
“I said, ‘For what? For freedom of speech?’” Owens said, “and then they all came running out.”
Owens said while he was in the choke hold an unnamed officer hit him in the leg with a billy club.
Jones and Owens said they were injured in the incident, with Jones saying she received treatment for back and arm injuries and Owens saying he was treated for abrasions on his throat and wrist. Owens said Kelly choked him and held his nose. Jones said McFarlin hit her with the baton and threw her on the floor.
The incident was the second such case caught on police video. After filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act, The Republican obtained a video related to a July 17 incident in the Police Department garage.
The department released the video after the suspect waived his privacy rights, though The Republican had argued the video was a police record of the incident and therefore a public document.
That video shows a handcuffed suspect exiting a police cruiser and appearing to stand face-to-face with Patrolman Philip J. McBride before flying back to hit the vehicle.
Later, the suspect, Juan DeJesus-Ortiz, 28, of Holyoke is seen being pulled off the floor of the garage by McBride.
DeJesus-Ortiz says McBride punched him in the face and broke his teeth for no reason.
McBride says the suspect attempted to head-butt him and he cut his right ring finger on the suspect’s teeth while trying to ward off the blow, an incident which caused him to be out of work on injured-on-duty status.
In the end, the Police Commission gave more weight to the suspect’s version, suspending McBride for 15 days without pay. McBride is appealing the suspension.
DeJesus-Ortiz was arrested for violating the open container law, disorderly conduct, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. His trial is set for May 17 in Hampden District Court. The Internal Investigation Unit report said “it appeared as though Officer McBride punched (DeJesus-Ortiz) in the face.”
Hampden County District Attorney William J. Bennett said he decided not to press charges against McBride because he felt the incident could be handled more quickly by the Police Commission. If there were any charge, he said, it would have been assault and battery, which is a misdemeanor. He said the decision not to prosecute was not based on whether there were sufficient grounds for the charges.
The video images of the latest incident were made public just four days after the Police Commission in a 3-2 vote found no probable cause to consider disciplinary action against officers involved in a police brutality complaint filed by high school principal Douglas Greer. Greer said he was suffering a diabetic seizure in a South End gas station last Nov. 4 when officers broke his windows, dragged him from the car and beat him.
Officers said they were forced to break the windows to the locked car and remove Greer after he failed to respond to their calls and was seen thrashing about in the car. The police internal probe found Greer had a history of violent diabetic seizures while witnesses offered conflicting accounts about the Nov. 4 incident.
The local leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League said they would not be satisfied until a requested federal civil rights probe is completed in the case.