a florida police sergeant who was Body camera video seen holding another officer A law enforcement officer was charged with battery and assault last year by his throat, officials said Thursday.
Christopher Pulese, 47, was also charged with tampering with evidence and assaulting a civilian during the November 19 incident, the Broward State Attorney’s office said in a statement.
Pulese, who was relieved of his supervisory duties in January, was charged with “intentionally touching or killing” a female officer against his will and when he placed pepper spray on her face, the statement said. , then he was beaten up.
The prosecutor’s office said the assault charge against the civilian, who was being arrested, was described as a violent felony at the time of the incident, prompting police to spray spray on the man’s face. was.
a probable cause affidavit Received by the South Florida Sun-Sentinella Pulis of trying to “spoil” her cellphone for her use in a criminal trial.
In the video, which was muted and blurred by the police department to protect an internal investigation, the police can be seen talking to the suspect, who is handcuffed and in the back of a patrol car.
According to Sunrise Police Chief Anthony Rosa, the female officer can be seen approaching her and grabbing her duty belt in an apparent attempt to pull her away.
The video shows the pulleys wheel turning around and pushing the officer back into another patrol car, grabbing the officer by his neck. He doesn’t deploy pepper spray.
In a January statement, Rosa said the sergeant, whom she did not name, arrived at the scene and contacted the suspect, whom Rosa described as “verbally and physically resistant.”
“The police did contact and verbally dispute with the suspect in a way that I thought was inappropriate and unprofessional,” Rosa said. “This supervisor escalated the encounter rather than de-escalating the emotionally charged situation. Everything we can do to defuse stressful events and defuse the chaos is our practice at the Sunrise Police Department. “
Rosa also praised the woman officer, noting that she was acting in accordance with the department’s policies that call for intervention when there is an “imminent fear of unnecessarily escalating engagements”.
Rosa did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday and a message left to a phone number listed under Pulese’s name was not immediately returned. It was not clear whether he had a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
The local chapter of the Police’s Brotherhood Order also did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a January statement received By Florida TV station, WSVN, the union president condemned Pulese for “publicly ridiculing” Rosa while an internal investigation was underway.
The status of the police in the department was not immediately clear. If convicted, he faces five years in prison for felony charges and five years in prison for tampering with evidence. He faces one year for assault on an officer’s charge and 60 days for assault on a civilian.