Suspended Lauderdale cop may be in more hot water as new videos emerge of him using force
The white Fort Lauderdale police officer who was suspended for knocking over a seated Black woman protesting on a downtown street last month is under new scrutiny over two additional questionable uses of force, which the city’s police chief has forwarded to state police to investigate.
Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione said Tuesday that he had additional concerns with the actions of Police Officer Steven Pohorence after viewing police body worn camera footage that he was alerted to through a public records request. Both videos show Pohorence handcuffing suspects who are face-down on the ground. In each video it appears he may be kneeling on the their backsides during the arrests, though his actions aren’t entirely clear in the footage.
At a hastily called press conference at police headquarters Tuesday, the chief and the city’s mayor wouldn’t discuss details of the videos they forwarded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“We uncovered new evidence of possible wrongdoing,” said Mayor Dean Trantalis. “Everybody will get to view the videos and make their own decisions.”
The chief’s decision to forward his findings for investigation also will have implications for all 400 sworn Fort Lauderdale police officers From now on, Maglione said, internal affairs will review all body worn camera footage in encounters when officers use force.
Maglione said the policy change was the department’s newest reform measure since national protests erupted after the May 25 death of George Floyd, a 41-year-old Black man who was killed when white Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on the back of his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
The department has also banned any type of neck restraint that restricts air flow and others officers are now under orders to intervene during any instance in which they believe a co-worker is using excessive force.
Maglione said body camera reviews probably should have been made policy when his officers started wearing them a year ago.
“We probably messed up an opportunity there to include body-worn cameras,” he said.
The first incident involving Pohorence now under state review happened in September and involved the arrest of a 23-year-old man named Gerald Rice. According to the incident report, Pohorence said police were there because Rice’s mother wanted him to leave her home and he refused. When police showed up, Pohorence said Rice told him “If you didn’t have a badge on I would beat your ass.”
In the report, Pohorence says he “rested my body weight on Mr. Rice’s back with my knee to gain control of his movements” and that he eventually had to be placed in a device that restrained his hand and feet.
The three minute and 48 second video seems to support Pohorence’s narrative. Several times Rice begs the officer to release him. Pohorence orders him to put his hands behind his back and stop resisting. “Quit resisting or I’m going to hurt you,” says Pohorence. Then it shows the officer kneeling down on the left side of Rice, who is face-down on the ground as another officer shows up with device.
The other video, which is just one minute and 40 seconds long, took place on April 18. In the incident report, Pohorence said he was working off-duty at the Broward Central Bus Terminal when a man refused to get off the bus. Pohorence said the suspect was aggressive until he finally got off the bus.
Once off the bus, Pohorence said, the man physically resisted and tried to pull away.
“I utilized two knee strikes on the side of the male’s face as a distractionary technique while officer Chatman obtained control of his right arm,” Pohorence wrote.
Like the first video, Pohorence’s statement seems to back up the footage. The officer isn’t seen striking the man in the video, but he is seen kneeling next to his left side as the man is face-down. Pohorence’s knee appears to be on his shoulder for leverage as he’s being handcuffed from behind.
Pohorence, who joined Fort Lauderdale 3 1/2 years ago after a stint with the Florida Highway Patrol, has been suspended with pay since video surfaced of him striking and shoving a seated woman seated during a tense protest with police in downtown Fort Lauderdale on May 31. In the video, he’s seen being chastised by a Black female police officer after he strikes the woman on the ground.
The Broward County State Attorney’s Office is looking into his actions to determine if there is any criminal wrongdoing.
Pohorence’s personnel file show he’s used force 79 times and drew his weapon more than 50 times since he’s been with the department. Maglione, however, explained Tuesday that his department’s definition for use-of-force is quite lenient and that those numbers didn’t even meet a threshold for a warning system the department has in place.
