Dozens of cases dropped by Georgia prosecutors after 2 officers are fired over violent traffic stop
Georgia prosecutors have dropped 89 cases after two police officers involved in those cases were fired last week after the public release of cell phone videos showing them beating a motorist during a traffic stop, the New York Times reports.
The decision to drop the cases was made by Gwinnett County Solicitor General Rosanna Szabo, whose office handles a variety of misdemeanors as well as traffic violations.
“The actions of these officers completely undermine their credibility, and they cannot be relied upon as witnesses in any pending prosecution,” Szabo said in a prepared statement.
The county’s district attorney, Danny Porter, says his office is reviewing as many as 40 felony cases in which the two police officers were witnesses. “Those that can be salvaged will be,” Porter told the Times in an email.
Two separate videos captured the April 12 traffic stop of 21-year-old Demetrius B. Hollins near Lawrenceville, an Atlanta suburb. One video showed Hollins getting out of the car and holding his hands over the head as he was punched in the face by the 41-year-old Sergeant Michael F. Bongiovanni. The second video showed Officer Robert McDonald, 25, either kicking or stomping Hollins’ head. The officers were fired on April 13, after the videos surfaced on Twitter, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Hollins is black; both the fired police officers are white. McDonald was fired for using excessive force; Bongiovanni was fired for lying on his report about the incident.
The county police department, in a written statement announcing the firings, said: “The actions of these two offices have implications that will be felt for some time. However, we also believe that our decisive action in terminating both officers speaks volumes about what is expected of each officer that wears a Gwinnett County Police badge.”
At a news conference on Saturday, Hollins’ lawyer, Justin D. Miller, said he wants the former police officers to stand criminal trial “with their legs shackled, and their hands cuffed behind their back,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in another story.
Then Hollins, whose mother was present, read from a prepared statement: “The truth would never have come out without these videos. No one would have believed that I did nothing to provoke an assault I suffered at the hands of these two Gwinnett County police officers. Even now, there are still many people who see me as a criminal, not as a college student or as a son.”
