A US federal judge has thrown out a civil rights case against the Alabama police officer who brutally assaulted an Indian grandfather last February, leaving him partially paralysed for no fault of his, save for the fact that he had no knowledge of English to explain that he was a visitor taking a stroll in the neighbourhood of his son’s home in Madison.
On Tuesday, Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala let off police officer Eric Parker, rejecting the prosecution’s plea for a third trial in the Sureshbhai Patel assault case after the first two were declared mistrial because of the inability of the jury to come to a unanimous conclusion in both instances.
Federal prosecutors had filed a motion arguing against acquittal, stating that a reasonable jury could view the video on the assault and listen to testimony and decide Parker intentionally used excessive force in slamming Patel onto the ground.
Parker could have faced the prospect of up to 10 years in prison for using excessive force against the 58-year-old Patel. While the main case is now out of the way, the police officer still faces a State charge of misdemeanor assault.
In her 92-page pronouncement, the judge wrote: “The Government has had two full and fair chances to obtain a conviction; it will not have another.” The judge took the stand that “the Court has no reason to expect a different result in a subsequent trial given the totality of the evidence that the parties have provided”.
“The result in this case is by no means satisfying. Hindsight brings clarity to a calamity,” Haikala was quoted as saying by Al.com. The brutal police assault, captured on a video that had gone viral at the time, happened on the morning of February 6 when the police responded to a resident’s call to complaint about a “skinny black guy” who was walking close to the garage.