PHILADELPHIA
(Reuters) - A grand jury has criminally charged two Philadelphia police
officers with knocking a man from his motor scooter, beating him and
then falsely accusing him of assault, in the latest case of alleged
police misconduct in the United States.
Officers Sean McKnight, 30, and Kevin Robinson, 26, were
charged with aggravated assault and related offenses in the May 2013
incident which occurred after a traffic stop in a gritty section of
north Philadelphia, said Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.
The victim, Najee Rivera, said he fled in fear on his
scooter after officers exited their vehicle with their batons extended.
That, according to Williams, enraged the pursuing officers.
One of them hit Rivera in the head with a baton as their
patrol car knocked him off his scooter, prosecutors said.
Rivera was hospitalized with a fractured orbital bone and
numerous lacerations to the head. But McKnight and Robinson filed
paperwork claiming Rivera attacked them.
Rivera's
girlfriend, however, had canvassed the area of the beating, and turned
up surveillance video of the beating.
“The video undermined every aspect of the officers'
account,” Williams told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.
“None of it was true except for the blows inflicted on Najee Rivera.”
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