Cop is arrested after jail surveillance video shows him shoving a Florida inmate into a wall and causing blood to gush from his head – before the officer tries to cover it up
- Homestead reserve officer Lester Brown was accused of covering up the attack
- Blood dripped down migrant worker Jose Garcia’s face after he struck the wall
- Garcia suffered a head laceration that that doctors closed using surgical glue
- Inmate was in jail for disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence
- Brown is suspended and charged with felony battery and official misconduct
- Cop’s lawyer C. Michael Cornely alleges that his client was ‘overcharged’
- Cornely complains that surveillance video was edited and ‘made to look worse’
A Florida cop was arrested after he was caught on jail surveillance video shoving an inmate, head-first, into a wall that left him with a bloody head injury that could only be closed with surgical glue, authorities said.
Lester Brown, a 51-year-old Homestead reserve police officer, was charged on Wednesday with felony battery and official misconduct, following an investigation into the attack on Jose Garcia, said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
Brown was suspended without pay.
His attorney C. Michael Cornely argued his client was ‘overcharged’ and that the surveillance video was edited to make the attack ‘look worse than it was.’
Lester Brown, a 51-year-old Homestead reserve police officer, escorting inmate Jose Garcia into a booking room with other officers following behind on Dec. 1. Brown is alleged to have shoved Garcia, head-first, into a wall, causing him a bloody head injury
Brown’s account of the attack alleges that Garcia (above), a migrant worker around 50-years-old who was arrested for disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence, pushed back and turned to attack officers who trailed him into the booking room
Video surveillance shows Brown (right) pushing Garcia from behind, causing the inmate to strike a wall head on
Garcia slumps down after his head strikes the wall and blood begins dripping down the side of his face
‘It’s unfortunate my client was arrested,’ Cornely told Dailymail.com. ‘The state attorney has full power to charge anybody with anything.’
The arrest came after a months-long investigation of the December 1 attack, said Rundle at a news conference.
Authorities said they had difficulty locating Garcia, a migrant worker who is around 50, to explain why the investigation took longer.
Garcia had been jailed on charges of disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence, both misdemeanors, said Rundle.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle during a new conference announcing Brown’s arrest said, ‘We will not stand for such behavior’
Surveillance video shows that upon entering a booking room, Garcia, shirtless and handcuffed, was violently shoved from behind by Brown.
Garcia strikes a wall head-on and immediately slumps down as blood begins to trickle down his face.
Rundle played the video of the brutal attack a second time at the conference.
‘That’s our felony battery right there,’ she said the moment Brown is sheen shoving Garcia.
‘He suffered a laceration to his forehead, he was bleeding quite noticeably,’ she said of the attack on Garcia.
‘He was then taken to the hospital and surgical glue was used to close the laceration,’ she said. ‘We will not stand for such behavior.’
Brown claims in an incident report that Garcia had pushed back and was turning to attack officers who were following him into the booking room.
The officer wrote that Garcia then started falling forward and that the two pushed up against each other, causing his head to hit the wall.
Rundle countered that the video contradicts Brown’s account.
Homestead Police Chief Alexander Rolle Jr. condemned the attack.
‘I’ve been here 21 years as police chief, and we have our integrity with our police department,’ he said. ‘We’re not gonna stand for any abuse of our citizens in our community.’