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Overnight Open Thread

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RogueOne1/18/2012 5:49:26 am PST

This story came out Friday:

Officer beats 66-year-old man suffering from dementia
wftv.com

WFTV obtained dash camera video of a violent police beating in Melbourne.

The video shows an officer attacking a 66–year-old man who WFTV learned is suffering from dementia.

In the video, Melbourne police Officer Derek Middendorf is shown giving Albert Flowers a front kick to his stomach.

Middendorf then punched Flowers repeatedly while he was on the ground.

Here’s the “best” part:

The officer turned off his video and audio equipment before the beating. The department was able to extract the video from the hard drive, but not the audio.

The only disciplinary record the officer received for the incident was a written reprimand for turning off the recording equipment.

Flowers was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer.

This all happened last October. After the video got released they decided maybe they didn’t want to charge the guy after all:

Charges dropped against man beaten by officer
wftv.com

State Attorney Norman Wolfinger said he reviewed the case file on Tuesday, along with additional information the office had received, and ordered attorneys to drop the charges.

“Although there is probable cause to support the legality of the arrest, a full review of the in-car video, the written reprimand by the Melbourne police of their officer’s actions that prevented an audio recording, and the documented mental health history of the defendant would not support a successful prosecution. Had all of this information been available to our intake attorney, the case would have been no filed at that time,” said Wayne Holmes, Chief of Staff for the Brevard office.

They had the video for quite awhile. They could have dropped the charges at any time but we’re supposed to believe that the release of the video and the resulting outrage over the weekend had nothing to do with their decision.