Jason Cox
Jason Cox testified that he feared for his life as three officers threw him to the ground, punched him at least six times, and shocked him four times with a Taser after they stopped him June 28, 2011, in the parking lot of a Portland strip club.
Police claimed Cox was argumentative, furrowed his brow, and tensed his muscles as officers attempted to place him in handcuffs, reported The Oregonian.
But surveillance video recorded outside the Pallas Club contradicted police claims, showing that Cox did not swing at officers or reach for a weapon.
"Mr. Cox did not appear to present a threat," said juror Dan Roberts. "He looked pretty compliant to me."
Cox admits he drank two vodka and Red Bull energy drinks on an empty stomach before driving to the club, and officers stopped him as he got out of his vehicle and asked him to undergo a field sobriety test.
Officers attempted to place Cox in handcuffs after he failed to maintain his balance while walking a straight line, and the video shows the officers throw him to the ground when he placed his hands behind his back.
Cox testified that he asked one officer to go easy on a previously injured shoulder, but the officer instead yanked him by that shoulder.
A juror told The Oregonian the video showed Cox stepped forward in pain from that yank, which caused police to take him down.
Cox testified that he put his hands in front of his body to break the fall, but pain from the repeated blows and Taser jolts prevented him from recalling what happened next.
Now 40, Cox said officers permanently injured his shoulder, which he said ended his career as an ironworker - where he made $33 an hour.
Drunken driving charges against Cox, who had a .078 blood-alcohol level three hours after his arrest, were dropped after the surveillance video was revealed.
"Sorry this happened to you," said juror Justin Browning to Cox after the trial. "It must be vindication. I know you've been through a lot."
Portland's mayor said he disagreed with the verdict and noted the police department had changed its use of force policies since Cox's arrest.
But Cox said he hoped more change would come from his experience.
"I hope body cameras start to be used in Portland, because if they know they're on film, none of this would have happened," Cox said.
"They've lied multiple times and it all came out in court. Is it going to come to anything? I don't know," he added.
Watch surveillance video from the incident posted online by Gregory Kafoury:
.... and taxpayers ALWAYS pick up the dime and dirty laundry for these psychotic 'bullies with badges'.
As one observant SOTT reader contributed recently, ONLY when true accountability occurs will this crap end.
And THAT means having these little bully-pigs pay the judgment out of their own pockets. But that basically NEVER happens. Why? Because the government knows that it can simply stick the tax-paying citizens with the bill and we HAVE TO pay that tab, don't we? So, the government almost always pays any individual award against its naughty officers, except in the very rare case where the cop is actually criminally prosecuted and convicted. But that is so bloody rare, that the reality is that any awards against the police are really just future taxpayer liabilities.
And the pigs know this. They know this very well, indeed.
And thus the police violence against the citizenry continues, unabated..........