Prosecutor clears Florida officer, he stops in traffic

A Florida policeman was suspended after being beaten during a traffic stop and would not face criminal charges for his actions, prosecutors said.

William McNeil Jr filmed a video of himself sitting in the car when the officer smashed a window, hit him, and dragged him to the ground. The video was widely circulated online.

In a report released by the state attorney’s office for Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, prosecutors determined that the official D Bowers did not commit any crimes.

“Officer Bowles conducted legal traffic stops and gave McNeill 12 individual legal orders, and McNeill refused to obey,” the report said.

After the video spread online in July, police released a human-body camera that showed Mr McNeill, 22, refused to withdraw from the vehicle after being told he was removed from his post for a traffic violation.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said the officer would be deprived of law enforcement duties in a bid to review whether he violated any of his policies.

Prosecutors said in a 16-page memo released by the state attorney’s office on Wednesday that the mobile video shot by Mr. McNeill “does not tell the full story of the law enforcement encounter with the man.”

It added that the prosecutor used the officer’s body camera lens to determine that he did not violate standards or policies.

Mr McNeill’s lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels called on the federal government to investigate the incident in a statement to the U.S. media on Wednesday.

“Because they are reluctant to seek justice, we will have to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the incident and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office,” they said.

McNeil said in his Instagram video that his teeth were torn apart and he needed stitches after his arrest. He also said he suffered a concussion.

“I didn’t recover from it, but I had to say the news in the end,” he wrote in the video title.

Prosecutors said Mr McNeill was stopped on February 19 because the officer saw his SUV parked in a house that was actively monitoring drug activity.

The BodyCam video shows the officer telling him he was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt or wearing a headlight in bad weather.

Video shows McNeill refuses to leave the vehicle, asking to talk to the officer’s supervisor before locking the door.

“The initially parking as a regular traffic escalated quickly to the arrest of McNeill for failing to comply with legal orders without violence,” the report said.

The report also said that body camera footage showed officer Ball repeatedly warned Mr McNeal that he would eventually have to break windows if he did not leave the car.

The officer has since “beated” his compliance “to gain the fight” and they found drug paraphernalia and a large serrated knife in the car, prosecutors said.

Mr McNeill later pleaded guilty to a resistance officer and driving with a revoked license, and prosecutors said he released a mobile video five months after his confession.