Prosecutors drop charges against Pompano woman who struggled with deputy
Prosecutors have dropped charges against a Pompano Beach woman accused of assaulting a Broward Sheriff’s deputy who arrested her on her birthday last year for refusing to present her ID when he asked for it.
Kianna Cooper, 28, will no longer face felony charges of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence. Cooper has maintained from the time of her arrest that Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Steven Davis was the aggressor in their encounter, most of which was recorded on his bodycam footage from the May 7, 2022, confrontation.
In a memorandum explaining the decision not to prosecute, Assistant State Attorney Lindsay Carrier said Davis could have arrested Cooper for refusing to hand over her driver’s license while he was investigating an assault complaint. But that was not Davis’ rationale, according to his official reports and his testimony.
“He reached into her vehicle, opened her car door, and removed her from her vehicle to prevent her from fleeing the scene,” Carrier summarized. The problem was, there was no evidence that Cooper was trying to flee the scene, she said. “The BWC (body-worn camera) does not capture Ms. Cooper attempting to start the vehicle or drive forward,” she said.
The encounter began on May 7, 2022, with a 911 call complaining about two people loudly arguing over a parking space. Cooper was one of those people. By the time he reached the scene, Davis mistakenly believed he was investigating an assault, a crime, which authorized him to demand Cooper’s ID.
“If the 911 dispatcher had not mistakenly categorized it as an assault instead of a disturbing the peace call, Deputy Davis would never have had the right to ask my client for her ID,” said Cooper’s lawyer, Stephen Melnick.
According to his bodycam footage, Davis repeatedly demanded the ID and it appeared Cooper was not going to comply. It also showed him forcing Cooper’s car door open and struggling with her afterward. Cooper loudly complained that Davis hit her and punched her. Blood falling to the asphalt came from Davis, who was wounded in the mouth.
Carrier also said she would have struggled to prove it was Cooper who physically harmed Davis. There is no clear moment in the bodycam video showing Cooper causing such an injury, and Davis’ own comments were inconsistent: First he said Cooper bit his lip. Then he said he was mistaken and that she scratched him.
Davis was also challenged on what he saw when he arrived at the scene. In one of his sworn statements, he said he observed Cooper “gesturing at bystanders as well as threatening them with bodily harm or violence,” Carrier wrote in her summary.
None of the witnesses interviewed for the case corroborated that account, and it’s not captured in the bodycam footage, Carrier noted.
Seeing no “reasonable likelihood” a jury would find Cooper guilty, Carrier announced a “nolle prossequi” in court Monday.
Through her attorney, Cooper declined to comment.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.
