Mansfield, LA. (AP) – The strip search lasted only six minutes, but when it was finished, Jarius Brown had a broken nose, a broken eye socket and a severely swollen face.
In the footage that has never been released before, two Louisiana Sheriff’s deputies pounded the naked 25-year-old and threw him around the laundry room at the DeSoto Parish Detention Center, landing a gust of 50 punches.
In the aftermath of the 2019 attack, one lawmaker resigned and the other was suspended. Internal records show that the sheriff’s office concluded that there was “no way to defend” the deputies’ actions.
But that was exactly what the Louisiana State Police did, and the Associated Press investigation was discovered. After waiting several months to analyze the graphic video and more than a year to interview Brown, the agency cleared the fraudulent agent. State police ultimately supported deputies’ claims that Brown was the “invader” in the altercation that took place after he was arrested for stealing a car.
This may have ended in cases where federal prosecutors were ultimately not involved, leading to the opposite conclusion. Brown was a victim of excessive force.
The graphic footage remained wrapped for six years, but this month it appeared in Brown’s long-term lawsuit seeking damage to his injuries. Brown, now 32, declined to comment through his attorney.
Former DeSoto District Attorney Gary Evans said the case highlights the safety net that the Justice Department has long offered in small communities. I’ll be cast into doubt If the department retreated civil rights enforcement amid the obligation to “free” President Donald Trump’s police, it retreated civil rights enforcement.
“This is a major miscarriage of justice at the state level, indicating that the system has collapsed and that it is not protecting its citizens,” Evans said. “In a community like this, it’s the only way the federal government can do anything.”
Brown’s assault was the latest in a police misconduct case in the Parish of DeSoto, a rural rural area of Piney Forest and Rolling Farmland, south of Shreveport, Louisiana.
A month before Brown was disturbed, another aide was charged with fraud after working on a man walking to a grocery store and repeatedly punching him. He agreed to a permanent ban from law enforcement in exchange for the dismissal of the charges. In another case, delegate of the Parish of Desoto He was charged with third degree rape After ordering the woman, he arrested him to have oral sex.
State Police spokesman Russell Graham refused to explain his agency’s conclusion that Brown’s case “there was not enough evidence” that he committed the crime. He attributes the delay in the investigation to the Covid-19 pandemic, which began six months after beating.
“LSP remains committed to thorough and impartial research and cooperation with our partners, ensuring accountability and protecting public trust,” Graham wrote in an email to the Associated Press, adding that the agency “conducted a thorough investigation into this issue when presented to them.”
Former Deputy Jabarere Posic pleaded guilty to using excessive force; I was declared last year He serves in federal prisons for about three years. He could not be reached for comment.
Another deputy deputy, DeMarks Grant, admitted to obstructing justice, but was released from prison in April after sentenced to 10 months. Grant told the Associated Press that he was still “stressed” and that he “lost a lot” as a result of his beliefs. He refused to say whether he regretted the assault.
“What happened happened happened,” he said.
Expert: Brown was a victim of excessive force
The use of Force experts questioned the diverse outcomes at the state and federal levels, with Brown poses no threat and claiming that the assault was excessive.
Grainy footage shows the brown handcuffs walking calmly into the prison laundry room before escaping. The heartbeat begins midway through the search after confronting Brown for not squatting as directed so that lawmakers can search him fully.
Neither adjutant asked Brown for medical care after the assault, but the guards realized the man needed attention and made sure he was taken to the hospital.
“I don’t know how an objective evaluator of this incident would determine that this is not an excessive amount,” said Charles “Joe” Key, a former Baltimore police officer who testified in police defense and reviewed the footage at the request of the Associated Press.
Andrew Scott, a former police chief in Boca Raton, Florida, said there was nothing on the video justifying the assault. He could only speculate that the agent was “providing retaliation.” The officer who justified the assault after watching the video added that he was “not a competent or a truth expert.”
Within days of the beating, DeSoto Parish Sheriff Jason Richardson suspended Grant and led to Pausing’s resignation. He defended the state police investigation in a recent interview, saying that federal and state reviews are not a comparison of “apples to apples” due to different criminal laws.
Former district attorney Evans said local officials repeatedly blocked efforts to obtain the video.
Louisiana State Police described Brown as an invader
Louisiana State Police ultimately provided the video to Charles Adams, the successor to Evans, who concluded an investigation in 2021. Regardless of what the video shows, Adams concluded to the Associated Press that the state police report concluded “state prosecutors” “if not very, very, very difficult.”
“The report would have come out and beat my head,” Adams said.
The state police report described Brown as an invader, and the man said he was “probably expensive” when attacked, but officers said he had taken “appropriate behavior” against him.
State investigators also concluded that the footage supported the accounts of agents in the attack. However, the US Department of Justice accused both agents of forgerying the report, and admitted that Grant was manufactured to create a “false story.”
A few weeks after the prison assault in September 2019, Brown pleaded guilty to “misuse of a car” and was sentenced to 18 months behind bars. State police interviewed Brown in prison in early 2021, reporting that he “reported that he “didn’t want anything” about be-hits and that he “had no interest in pursuing crime or civil issues.”
Local judge Amy McCartney dismissed the lawsuit filed against her agent by Brown, and in 2023 the assault did not constitute a “violent crime.” Court of Appeal reversed that decisionand Brown’s lawyers are seeking damages for his injuries and medical expenses.
“Jarius Brown survived the horrifying, unprovoked assault,” said Brown’s lawyer Michael Inbrosio, adding that he “has the right to justice.” Brown is also represented by the American Civil Liberties Union in Louisiana. A long legal battle It relates to the law of state restrictions on civil claims arising from police violence.
Brown’s father, Derek Washington, said the attacks have “sent the already unstable mental abilities of his son to a more severe case of schizophrenia and anxiety.” Today, Brown fears crowds and closed spaces, he said, and “cannot function in society.”
“He always thinks someone is trying to hurt him physically,” Washington said. “Now my son is just a stranger and I just want to regain his similarity.”
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Brooke reported from New Orleans.
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