Former cop found guilty in Michigan traffic stop beating
DETROIT -- A former Inkster, Mich., police officer was found guilty Thursday of assault and misconduct in the bloody beating of a driver during a traffic stop, reports CBS Detroit.
The January incident, in which William Melendez, who is white, beat Floyd Dent, who is black, was captured on video. Melendez was fired in March as a result of the video, which ignited protests in Inkster, a 25,000 person Detroit suburb that is 73 percent black.
Jurors Thursday found Melendez guilty of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and of misconduct in office. They cleared him of a charge of assault by strangulation.
Police stopped Dent, 58, in the Detroit suburb of Inkster, for disregarding a stop sign, and dashcam video from a police vehicle shows Melendez being pulled from his car and punched in the head 16 times. A Taser was also used three times during the assault.
Dent was initially charged with resisting arrest and possession of drugs, but those charges were dropped after a judge saw the video of Dent's arrest. Dent said police planted drugs in his car.
Inkster later agreed to pay $1.4 million to Dent, who suffered broken ribs, blood on his brain and other injuries.
The packed courtroom was largely quiet after Thursday's verdict was read, following Judge Vonda Evans' orders to neither "cry out" nor "applaud" out of respect for the jury. Melendez's wife rushed out of the courtroom, invoking Evans' ire and a demand that she return and "sit down."
Evans ordered Melendez to jail pending his Dec. 3 sentencing.