DOJ 'monitoring', not investigating, case of Jacksonville man injured in viral arrest video
Federal prosecutors are keeping tabs on the fate of a man injured in a viral video of his arrest by Jacksonville police, but they aren’t jumping to start the civil rights investigation his lawyer wanted.
“We are monitoring the incident,” U.S. Justice Department Division Chief James F. Felte Jr. told defense attorney Harry M. Daniels in a letter made public Tuesday. ”If information discloses a prosecutable federal criminal civil rights offense, then appropriate action will be taken.”
Daniels represents Le’Keian Woods, who was hospitalized and arrested on charges including armed drug trafficking after he ran from a truck that police stopped Sept. 29 on a Southside residential street.
The truck, where police found several types of drugs and a man with a gun — Woods had no gun when arrested — had been followed from a Powers Avenue gas station that detectives had under surveillance.
More: Report says Black suspect in viral arrest video struck 17 times by Jacksonville officers
Police ran after Woods, who passed several buildings before he fell face-first onto pavement after being tasered, then struggled with police to avoid having both arms handcuffed behind his back. Video shot by a bystander showed Woods’ face was badly bruised and he had other marks when he was finally cuffed and sitting up on the pavement.
Daniels asked the Justice Department Oct. 5 to probe whether Woods, who is Black, was illegally detained and suffered excessive force because of his race. The request was supported by the Legal Defense Fund, an activist legal group descended from the NAACP.
Felte told the defense lawyer that his agency focuses often on police agencies where investigators can show and a “pattern or practice” of violation of rights, which requires more than a single case.
But in a release about the Justice response, Daniels expressed optimism, noting the agency requested invited additional information about the case and said that information should be called into the FBI’s Jacksonville office.
“Sheriff Waters and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office may not take this kind of brazen and unapologetic violence seriously. But the DOJ sure does,” Daniels said in the release. “Some of the stories we’ve heard are downright terrifying and it's encouraging to know that now the JSO’s victims have somewhere to turn for justice.”
A Sheriff’s Office statement circulated Tuesday evening said any suggestion that Justice was actively watching police conduct would be “categorically and unequivocally false.”
If Justice does investigate, the statement added, “we are confident that federal investigators will arrive at our same conclusion that the involved officers acted within administrative policy.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: DOJ 'monitoring', not probing, case with Jacksonville man hurt in arrest
