After Video Surfaces, Innocent Man is Exonerated for Assault on an Officer

Boston, MA — A violent cop, who beat an innocent man in front of fellow officers, and then charged him with assault, pleaded guilty to battery last week, but only after video of the incident surfaced.

 

Officer Felix Rivera, Jr. 34, of the Chelsea police department, responded, along with several officers, to a call about a man with a gun on September 26, 2014. The victim, who was 20-years-old at the time, was not the man with a gun.

 

When multiple officers showed up at the victim’s location, he is dragged from the doorway, and the supervisor on the scene told his fellow officers to place the man in protective custody as he appeared to be intoxicated. However, the ‘custody’ was anything but ‘protective.’

 

According to Rivera’s police report, the victim pushed another officer and was taken to the ground, where his multiple injuries would occur. The victim was then arrested and brought to jail.

 

After three days in jail, the victim was arraigned on Sept. 29, 2014, on charges of assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. He was then released on his own recognizance to face the false charges later that year.

 

Had an anonymous witness not come forward, this innocent man would have likely been convicted on all charges.

 

Luckily for the victim, however, the anonymous witness was filming. What the video shows is the exact opposite of what Rivera claimed. The man was placed in handcuffs with no resistance. As he was being escorted from the scene, Rivera began to repeatedly bash in his face and then knocked him to the ground for no reason.

 

The victim suffered cuts to his face, malalignment of the jaw and still suffers from blurred vision because of this attack.

 

After the video was shown to prosecutors, all charges were dropped, and Rivera was placed on administrative leave.

 

An investigation found that none of the other officers hit the victim, and one, in fact, tried to stop Rivera. However, after watching their fellow cop assault an innocent young man and then lie about it, not one of the officers dared to cross the blue line and report their fellow brother.
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Sourced through Scoop.it from: thefreethoughtproject.com