Beaten by Officers After an Officer Claimed to be Assaulted

My question involves police conduct in the State of: Michigan

i was in the back seat of a jetta when the car stalled out on hwy I75. stuck waiting for already 45 minutes in the -30 weather. 2 officers come to "save us" 3 canadians. I voiced it was really cold and we should not have the doors open letting out the last of our heat. However, it fell on def ears. The 2 cops came back to the car with a sitation for failing to show an insurance slip. Claims it was only given because of my chatter. I reply thats bullshit. Cop opens my doors says step out now. I show him my video camera and say no problem but i'm bring this for my own protection. I have one foot outside the car one in. left hand in pocket frozen and right hand on video camera. Officer says "give me that" don't bring that out here. I told him your not allowed to have it. He reached inside the car forcing me back into the car. i toss the camera so he could not do any harm to it. He steps back. I stand facing him. (all the while the driver and passenger are watching) The officer says, why did you assault me. I replied, i didn't. how could i my hands are in my pockets. First he says i elbow his arm. then later claims in put my forearm in his chest. first cop who issued the ticket, comes around the car and throws me up agains the car. One pulling me down, other towards the car. neither saying anything. i move myself to the back of the car and stay do you want me to go down? Finally the cop hitting me with his flash light says "get on the ****ing ground now" i get beat, kneed and tossed around. by the two cops. all seen by the two witnesses. I go to jail for 12 hours, see the court. court says i'm being charged for resisting arrest. papers the cops gave me say, assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and obstruction. What are my options? what am i entilted to. Please help

Your option is to get a lawyer. We can't analyze what actually happened based on your rendition of the events.
Entitled to? Get real. You'll be lucky not to be entitled to spending some time in jail.

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Quoting flyingron

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Your option is to get a lawyer. We can't analyze what actually happened based on your rendition of the events.
Entitled to? Get real. You'll be lucky not to be entitled to spending some time in jail.

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Why would i be spending more time in jail when I never initated any contact with the "cowboy" officer? No rights violated here at all? hmm

Thats a question of fact for the court to decide.

Without knowing what transpired from a neutral witness NOR what the officer will claim in the charges happened, we can't help you. I can tell you the charge against you is serious and you NEED a lawyer. Jail is quite a strong possibility. This is not a self help on the boards type of legal issue.

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Quoting joshgaut29

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Finally the cop hitting me with his flash light says "get on the ****ing ground now

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He was beating you with a mini flashlight? What police agency are you talking about?

Have your lawyer check to see if there is an audio or video recording of the incident from the patrol vehicle.

As others have stated, your description of your actions is insufficient for us to determine what happened. You seem to be admitting that you repeatedly failed to follow officers' instructions during the incident. It does make sense for you to team up with a criminal defense lawyer.

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Quoting aaron

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He was beating you with a mini flashlight? What police agency are you talking about?

You seem to be admitting that you repeatedly failed to follow officers' instructions during the incident. It does make sense for you to team up with a criminal defense lawyer.

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I did everything they asked of me. However, they failed to ask me to do anything. I had to ask them what i was to do. I've never been in trouble like this. We do have some audio recording. 2 fairly neutral witnesses, and a room full of officers who openly admitted to only prosecuting, canadians and mexicans. Who thanked me for the over time and the christmas bonus. And have a good night in the cold jail cell. Not sure how i failed, freedom of speak or failing to give up my video camera that had evidence of either unprofessional behavior towards me and the passengers in the car

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I show him my video camera and say no problem but i'm bring this for my own protection

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.Your first mistake was opening your mouth. Yes, you have a right to be mouthy but a wise person realizes that at -30º, sometimes it's better to consider what might happen should one tempt others. Then, the second mistake was claiming you were bringing the camera with you. When an officer detains you, you do not have a right to maintain a camera. You should have passed it off to one of your friends and said "here, keep it running".

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I have one foot outside the car one in. left hand in pocket frozen and right hand on video camera. Officer says "give me that" don't bring that out here.

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and he was correct. Since you were being detained, the officer does have a right to control the situation. A camera is as useful as a weapon as a flashlight.

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I told him your not allowed to have it.

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You are correct but it was your insistence you keep it in hand that was causing the problem. He was attempting to remedy the situation.

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He reached inside the car forcing me back into the car. i toss the camera so he could not do any harm to it. He steps back. I stand facing him. (all the while the driver and passenger are watching) The officer says, why did you assault me. I replied, i didn't. how could i my hands are in my pockets. First he says i elbow his arm. then later claims in put my forearm in his chest

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From what it sounds like is you did take action to prevent the officer from grabbing the camera. Common sense allows one to see that you likely twisted away from him and attempted to hold him away from the camera in some way. Yes, that was assault.

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first cop who issued the ticket, comes around the car and throws me up agains the car. One pulling me down, other towards the car.

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pulling you towards the car? You say you had just been thrown against the car. Not seeing how you can be pulled anymore towards the car.

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i move myself to the back of the car

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why? why would you move anywhere?

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Finally the cop hitting me with his flash light says "get on the ****ing ground now" i get beat, kneed and tossed around. by the two cops. all seen by the two witnesses. I go to jail for 12 hours, see the court. court says i'm being charged for resisting arrest. papers the cops gave me say, assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and obstruction. What are my options? what am i entilted to. Please helpso, what are your witnesses saying about all of this?

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so, where are your witnesses during all of this? Hopefully they stayed in the car, or at least away from the situation.


if the cops were there to save you, what difference would it make if the doors were open? It had already been 45 minutes so there wasn't much, if any heat, remaining anyway but who cares? The cops were there. They could set you in their cars or if medical attention was needed, call an ambulance. Who knows, they might have even taken you somewhere in their cars. You got lippy about losing non-existent heat from the people that had heat with them. Something really doesn't make much sense in your premise from the very beginning and simply gets worse from there.

Time to hire a lawyer.

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Quoting jk

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From what it sounds like is you did take action to prevent the officer from grabbing the camera. Common sense allows one to see that you likely twisted away from him and attempted to hold him away from the camera in some way. Yes, that was assault.

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I fail to see how moving a limb away from the officer is assault. Resisting arrest maybe.

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Quoting Chris Grooms

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I fail to see how moving a limb away from the officer is assault. Resisting arrest maybe.

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Ya, I guess when you only read half the statement, it sounds different than that I meant:

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and attempted to hold him away from the camera in some way.

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Odd, when I was a youth & mouthed off to a cop - I would get a flashlight (or club) to the head. Now that I'm older, when I get mouthy, they do nothing. I guess that is just the way it is. Or it could be that is has nothing to do with me but that the police have changed their methods. I actually preferred getting clunked on the head and being sent on my way rather then being issued a ticket. Anyway, your witnesses will be useless in court...they will never testify that they could see everything you did. Wham, BAM, thank you ma'am. Welcome to the clunked heads club.