That night in 2010 will be remembered for University of Maryland beating Duke in basketball, and Prince George’s County police officers Reginald Baker and James J. Harrison beating John McKenna.
Baker and Harrison are on trial for the misdemeanor beating, Judge Beverly Woodward having dismissed first degree assault charges, the only felonies, after the close of the prosecutions case based upon the lack of evidence to prove “serious physical injury.” Sadly, this appears to be the correct ruling,
The remaining charges, second degree assault, are misdemeanors. Try getting a few of your friends together and beating the crap out of someone with clubs, and see whether you’re only charged with misdemeanors. But I digress.
The defense of the officers is bold, to say the least. From the Washington Post :
An unruly riot? That characterization goes along with the claims of the original complaint filed against McKenna, claiming:Attorneys for the officers called the gathering an unruly riot that threatened to get out of control and characterized McKenna, then a 21-year-old student, as an aggressor who ran toward police with fists clenched, ignoring warnings to stand back.
Didn’t see any of that on the video? Well, neither did anyone else, but that didn’t stop the cops from coming up with a really cool justification for how the 21-year-old college kid ended up all beaten. It wasn’t them, of course. Darn those horses. But we’re well past the prosecution of McKenna, and deep into the prosecution of Baker and Harrison.On the night of the incident, police alleged in charging documents that McKenna and another student had struck officers and their horses and that the students had been injured when they were kicked by the horses. Maryland-National Capital Park Police later said that the students did not attack, and prosecutors dropped those charges.
Rarely will a video show so clearly a happy kid, skipping down the sidewalk, brutally beaten. Indeed, one of the biggest questions raised by this video is why only two cops are on trial.In the video, McKenna skips along the sidewalk and then stops feet from officers on horseback. He is slammed against a wall by Baker’s shield and then crumples to the ground as Harrison rushes over and strikes him with a baton, the video shows.
In his opening statement, Brennan suggested that McKenna tried to punch Baker over his shield. But a fellow student, Nathan Cole, testified Monday that McKenna had his fists clenched in celebration, “not in a threatening manner,” and sang the Notre Dame fight song as he skipped. Cole said McKenna did not attempt to punch the officer.
Prosecutors showed jurors photos of McKenna’s head injury, bruises and swollen hand. He suffered a concussion and needed eight staples to close the head wound.
There really isn’t a great deal to discuss about the prosecution against the cops, or their fabricated allegations against McKenna, or their brutal and disgusting acts. It’s all there on video to see.
But the sheer hubris of arguing that none of this happened is truly magnificent, and no doubt appreciated by the audience:
While the WaPo article doesn’t say, I don’t imagine the room full of uniformed police officers was there to assure that two vicious cops received the conviction they so richly deserved. With the Chief in the courtroom with them, there is no doubt the message was clear: Magaw will stand behind his cops, no matter how badly they beat a college kid for skipping along the sidewalk.Uniformed police officers crowded the courtroom Monday. County Police Chief Mark A. Magaw, who was not in charge of the department at the time of the incident, was also in the gallery.
Great message. And all this for a possible misdemeanor conviction.
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Don’t you know that dancing in the street is illegal? Just because it appears in song doesn’t make it right, you know.
Well, sure, but do they have to beat the kid for it? Wouldn’t a stern talking-to have been sufficient?
Beating does seem excessive. But kids just don’t listen these days. Perhaps being tased would have been a happy medium.
I guess it’s too much to hope for that we can get the Notre Dame song categorized as “fighting words.”
Something seems strange about the decision throwing out the more serious charges. The article you link describes it as the judge doing so because McKenna seems to have recovered from his injuries- specifically the concussion.
It’s been two-and-a-half years. I would hope he’s recovered.
I hope this is just poor reporting…
The statutory definition of “serious phyical injury” is quite severe.
The “missing from news & trial” aspects alone should fill the calendar.
a) The reason there’s a case at all is the victim’s grandfather is a now-retired MD Appellate Judge.
b) When the vic’s attorney requested the official campus Big Brother videos from the UM cops, it was oops, missing. Then it emerged the UM Police Lt. in charge of video is married to one of the mounted cops. But unbeknownst to her, a UM IA officer had already copied that file. We have not seen *that* video, however.
c) Silence from the Feebs, who were allegedly investigating.
d) That video is from a student’s cell phone camera, taken out a dorm window. It was found by an investigator hired by the victim.
e) No other officers have been charged, including the ones who perjured themselves filing the false arrest report. I’d think that conspiring with other cops to file a false arrest is well, conspiracy.
f) The NFL will be glad to hear that concussions are neither serious nor their effects permanent.
For those of you well Outside the Beltway, the PGPD cops are infamous for their treatment of anyone not same. They are being sued for assaulting a DC cop, and one is in Federal lockup; others are serving state time.
Grew up in Montgomery County in the 70s and even back then the PG County cops were considered thugs.
I suspect that the defendants have very conflicted feelings right now. On the one hand, the charge they face has been reduced to a misdemeanor. On the other hand, they’ll be laughing stocks amongst their fellow officers for having failed to have produce any “serious physical injuries” during the beat down.
Growing up in the DC area, anytime you hear about a kid killed by a police officer, the automatic assumption is PG police.
UPDATE, 10/19/2012, 9:55pm ET: A jury has reached a verdict in the case. Officer Reginald Baker was found not guilty on all counts. Officer James Harrison was found guilty of second-degree assault, but he was found not guilty of misconduct in office.
So “assault” is not “misconduct in office” in PG.
Absolutely astounding. Here’s a link to the WaPo story.
Much as I would like to find some arguable basis for this outcome, I’m stymied.
Grey matter and CSF visible?
Back in the mid-80’s a black man being pursued by five Virginia agencies surrenderred in the middle of the Woodrow Wilson bridge because he realized he was about to enter PG County.
Arguable Basis: “Some animals are more equal than others.”
Police department = Army of occupation with a shrinking number of exceptions
{Judge} Woodard sentenced Harrison to 30 days of home detention, followed by 18 months of supervised probation.
{WashPost today; my attempts to leave the cite are to no avail….}
And he retires with his full pension.