• You must be logged in to see or use the Shoutbox. Besides, if you haven't registered, you really should. It's quick and it will make your life a little better. Trust me. So just register and make yourself at home with like-minded individuals who share either your morbid curiousity or sense of gallows humor.

Satanica

Veteran Member
Bold Member!
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/ind...ows_alleged_assault_on.html#incart_river_home
FLINT, MI – Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said a jail surveillance video "speaks for itself" in the case against a former jail deputy accused of assaulting an inmate.

Leyton's office released the video showing the 2012 incident involving former Sgt. Gerald Parks Jr. following a Freedom of Information Act by MLive-The Flint Journal.

However, Parks' attorney, Jay Clothier, claims the edited video fails to show the entirety of the situation.

The video release comes after Leyton's office earlier this month asked Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph J. Farah to reinstate the criminal case against Parks, which was dismissed by Genesee District Judge M. Cathy Dowd in July for a lack of probable cause.

The video shows the alleged victim, Justin VanHorn, in a safety cell at the jail when he claimed he began knocking on the window to get the attention of the deputies.

Three deputies, including Parks, approached the inmate who had retreated back to a concrete pad in the room.

VanHorn can be seen handing paperwork to Parks, who then throws it in the cell's toilet. Parks then twice pepper sprayed VanHorn.
[....]
Leyton's office charged Parks in October 2014 with misconduct in office, misuse of a dangerous weapon and assault and battery after officials with the Genesee County Sheriff's Office claimed they uncovered surveillance video of the incident.

However, Parks' attorneys have claimed the case is retaliation for a lawsuit the former sergeant filed against the sheriff's office.

Clothier said the video fails to show VanHorn's entire time in the jail. He added that Parks previously warned VanHorn about acting out, and VanHorn's actions were disturbing other inmates.

Parks acted within the jail's policies when he sprayed an insubordinate VanHorn, Clothier said.

"That's not the whole video," Clothier said. "That's not the whole circumstances."
20785109-small_zpszbcmrdzd.png

 
I want to know what happened before the pepper spray incident. I work in a jail, and I've never pepper sprayed anyone for throwing paper. Pepper spray sucks for everyone in the area. Either there's more to the story, or this guy is a complete ass.
 
I want to know what happened before the pepper spray incident. I work in a jail, and I've never pepper sprayed anyone for throwing paper. Pepper spray sucks for everyone in the area. Either there's more to the story, or this guy is a complete ass.
I'm thinking complete ass hole on a power trip.
 
The rest of the article gives some interesting information. He didn't just pepper spray, he punched him but because of the camera angle the defense says you can't tell if he hit the inmate or something else. Either way you can't walk around pretending to punch inmates. The judge wouldn't allow another deputy who was there to identify the one who allegedly assaulted the inmate.

It's also important to note that this isn't a trial. They don't need absolute proof. This is only to decide if there's enough evidence to charge him and take him to trial. Which is absolutely is.
 
The judge wouldn't allow another deputy who was there to identify the one who allegedly assaulted the inmate.

The fuck???

I'm curious as to why/how this was dismissed by a prvious judge. It sounds like the gov't was keeping this video under lock and key to protect itself, shit didn't get rolling until the media forced the videos release. Somebody should look into that shit. Corrupt fuckers. Every single one of these cops is likely as dirty as the water in that disgusting city.
 
The fuck???

I'm curious as to why/how this was dismissed by a prvious judge. It sounds like the gov't was keeping this video under lock and key to protect itself, shit didn't get rolling until the media forced the videos release. Somebody should look into that shit. Corrupt fuckers. Every single one of these cops is likely as dirty as the water in that disgusting city.
You got it backwards. They've been trying to prosecute but the judge keeps shooting it down saying there isn't enough evidence to take it to trial.

Leyton is the prosecutor trying to take this to trial.
Leyton said the video and testimony from VanHorn established probable cause in the case, and he said it should have been bound over for trial despite Clothier's claims.

"It's a question of fact, and that is for the jury to determine not the district court judge," Leyton said.

Leyton's office claims Dowd abused her discretion by relying on a standard of proof higher than probable cause, which is all that is necessary to bind the case over to circuit court for trial.

"Despite (the inmate's) testimony that he had been punched by a deputy that he could not identify and (Undersheriff) Swanson's testimony identifying the defendant drawing his hand back in a punching manner, coupled with testimony that this was an unjustified use of force, the Court still declined to acknowledge that there was probable cause that any assault took place," Leyton's office argued in its appeal.

"Instead, the Court reasoned that because it could not been seen where the Defendant's hand was landing on the video – if it was striking the chair, the victim, or something else – it had not been shown to a probable cause standard that the Defendant had assaulted the victim under circumstances that did not justify assault."

Prosecutors also argued that Dowd relied on hypothetical situations that may have justified Parks' use of the spray.

"No facts were admitted, however, to bring justification out of the realm of the merely hypothetical," Leyton's office argued in the appeal.

[..]

This isn't the first time Leyton's office has challenged an attempt from Dowd to dismiss the case.

Dowd previously dismissed the charges against Parks in June 2015 after VanHorn was unable to identify him as the deputy who attacked him. The incident was caught on jail surveillance cameras, but Dowd refused to allow a second sheriff's deputy to identify Parks on the video.

The judge claimed it was inappropriate to allow a third-party identification based on the video since the alleged victim was able to testify. She dismissed the case before prosecutors finished presenting witness testimony.

Prosecutors appealed Dowd's decision to Farah, arguing they should have been allowed to introduce a DVD copy of the surveillance video and let the second deputy use it to identify Parks as the perpetrator of the alleged assault.

Farah ruled Dowd abused her discretion by failing to admit the surveillance video as evidence and stated she misinterpreted legal precedent when she did not allow the second deputy to identify Parks in the video.

He ordered Parks' preliminary exam to continue.

Prosecutors are again asking Farah to overturn Dowd and order the case be bound over to circuit court for trial.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/ind...ows_alleged_assault_on.html#incart_river_home
 
You got it backwards. They've been trying to prosecute but the judge keeps shooting it down saying there isn't enough evidence to take it to trial.
Leyton is the prosecutor trying to take this to trial.

You know what happened, i'm so used to reading stories like this where the gov't protects itself and after trampling a victims rights, their only recourse is to sue, that i couldn't help but read it as this dude being the victims lawyer and working against the gov't. Even now it's almost impossible for my mind to comprehend that a prosecutor is pursuing a case against a gov't stormtrooper.

Sounds like the judge is in fact a corrupt piece of rotten Michigan filth though, no doubt about it.
 
Back
Top