'officer' Black should lose any benefits including pension!
LAKE WALES, Fla. — A Lake Wales man, who could have been sent to prison for years based on the claims in a police report, was saved by a home surveillance camera. It showed he didn’t attack an officer, as claimed in the report.
After the incident, community leaders said it’s not the first time they’ve heard complaints about heavy-handed policing in their small town.
It started with a traffic stop by Officer Colt Black on the morning of Feb. 8.
Chris Cordero was driving his beat-up Saturn to Publix to pick up medicine for his young son.
“I stopped at a stop sign on Third Street and I noticed the officer behind me, way before I even stopped,” Cordero said, describing how the incident started.
Unbeknownst to the officer, a camera across the street captured it all.
“I get out of the vehicle to ask him what’s going on because he’s been following me for a while,” Cordero said.
Cordero stood by his car for more than 20 seconds.
However, Officer Black’s report said, “Cordero immediately exited the driver door and began to charge towards my patrol vehicle.”
It also indicated Cordero approached the officer with closed fists.
“That’s absolutely not true,” Cordero said.
Cordero said he complied with all of Officer Black’s commands.
“The officer requested to me that I go to the back of my car and put my hands on the trunk. Because he wants to search me to see if I have a weapon,” Cordero said.
Black approached Cordero about 30 seconds later.
“He sucker-punched me from the back, right here, cracked a piece of my tooth out. I landed on the ground,” Cordero said.
Moments later, Officer Travis Worley arrived.
“They both jumped on me and beat me up really bad,” Cordero said.
In the report, Officer Black says he, “delivered an elbow strike to the left side of Cordero’s head” … because he thought he was ”reaching for a weapon.”
In an internal affairs complaint Cordero filed, he said Worley used a racist slur.
Cordero was charged with resisting arrest, assault on a law enforcement officer and making a death threat to a law enforcement officer.
When he bonded out of jail the next day, he went door to door in the neighborhood until he found the footage.
After Cordero shared the footage with police, Officer Black wrote in another report, "I believe my perception was altered due to the high stress of the incident.”
“When I told Mr. Cordero I believed him, he broke down in tears."
Lake Wales attorney Sara Jones forwarded the video to the Polk County State’s Attorney’s Office, which immediately dropped the charges.
Jones says she’s heard multiple complaints from clients about Lake Wales officers using heavy-handed tactics.
“These officers who have issues with power and control target people who they know won’t be believed,” Jones said.
She says she believes police leadership is aware there are issues with some of the officers on the force.
“They know. How can they not when I stand at the commission podium and I talk to them and I say, 'I'll tell you, I'll show you. Come talk to me. I'll tell you who they are and what they're doing and I'll help you build the cases against them,'” Jones said.
We requested an interview with the police chief, but he declined, citing an ongoing internal investigation.
In an emailed statement, the police department confirmed Colt Black resigned, effective Feb. 10 and Travis Worley was placed on administrative station duty.
Both officers had prior complaints
The I-Team has uncovered both officers have been previously investigated. Two complaints against Black were investigated and closed without any action taken because the investigator found he did not violate policy. Black was disciplined in 2018 for an unauthorized vehicle pursuit.
Worley, named “Officer of the Year” in 2019 and past president of the Lake Wales Police Officers Association, has been the subject of four citizen complaints and two internal investigations, including two allegations saying he used racial slurs.
more:
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/home-surveillance-camera-shows-officer-lied-on-report-when-charging-man-with-major-crimes
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