Two California police officers will stand trial on charges relating to the death of a homeless man whose brutal beating was caught on camera, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The ruling came after an emotional hearing where prosecutors showed a video of Fullerton officers Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli beating Kelly Thomas with their batons, kicking him and Tasering him on the street.
The video begins with Ramos asking Thomas to put his hands on his knees and becoming increasingly frustrated when he doesn’t comply.
At one point, he put on latex gloves and told Thomas, “See these fists? They’re getting ready to fuck you up, if you don’t fucking start listening.”
The confrontation escalated into a more than nine-minute beating, with Thomas screaming that he couldn’t breathe, apologizing, and yelling for his father.
When they were finished, Thomas, who was a paranoid schizophrenic, was lying in a pool of blood. He died a few days later in a California hospital.
{snip} . . . Attorneys for the police officers have questioned if it was actually the medical treatment that resulted in Kelly Thomas’ death — not the beating.
{snip} . . . But, according to ABC News, Ron Thomas told reporters, “You have 1,500 pounds of trained cop on my one little son, but they have to bring this out like they were just so overpowered by this brute to make themselves look innocent and that they’re the victims.”
ARTICLE Short URL: http://www.newsnet14.com/?p=102009
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