Man In Court After Police Beating

A 64-year-old retired teacher accused of being drunk and resisting arrest, and whose beating by city police was caught on videotape, pleaded not guilty Wednesday as the officers involved in the arrest denied using excessive force.

A lawyer for Robert Davis said charges of public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation were groundless and that they should be dropped.

Davis was released on bond and a trial was set for Jan. 18, a week after the scheduled start of the trial for the officers accused of beating him.

CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts reports that it is a violation of the New Orleans Police Department's policy to strike a suspect in the head, but Davis was

Bruno has said that his client plans to file a civil suit against the city.

An attorney for the officers, Frank DeSalvo, said police were only trying to subdue Davis and that their actions were justified because of Davis' resistance.

"I see an incident of a man trying to be brought under control who doesn't want to be brought under control," DeSalvo said.

Davis says he had not been drinking before he was beaten by two police officers, a weekend confrontation taped by an Associated Press Television News crew. Those officers and a third accused of grabbing and shoving an APTN producer have pleaded not guilty to battery charges.

DeSalvo said that as one of the accused officers, S.M. Smith, pushed through the crowd during Saturday night's incident, "he bumped into somebody from The Associated Press, I guess." He said the AP producer grabbed the officer, spun him around and the officer responded by pushing the producer away from the arrest.

The video shows that when producer Rich Matthews held up his credentials, the officer grabbed him, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade.

Matthews was not charged in the incident.