Pubdate: Thu, 23 May 2002
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2002 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily 
home delivery circulation area.
Author: Victoria Cherrie

FORSYTH DEPUTIES EXONERATED IN TRAFFIC-STOP BEATING

District Attorney Says Action Taken During Early Morning Confrontation 
Within Law

The Forsyth County district attorney will release a report today saying 
that the two sheriff's deputies who beat Nakia Glenn during a traffic stop, 
which turned violent, acted properly because Glenn resisted arrest and 
posed a threat to the officers' safety.

Glenn, 22, was in a coma for several weeks after the incident Aug. 19 on 
East 21st Street and Cleveland Avenue. He is now in a rehabilitation center 
and has severe brain damage.

District Attorney Tom Keith says in his report that Glenn's coma was caused 
by the cocaine he swallowed sometime during his arrest, not by being hit on 
the head with a 10-ounce flashlight by Deputy Shane Wells.

Keith says he doesn't plan to bring charges against Wells or Deputy Gary 
Simpson. He says that they acted within the law and abided by the policies 
of the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office.

"They (these officers) were in a fight for their lives," Keith says. "This 
is a community issue more than it is about excessive force."

The contents of Keith's report didn't satisfy Glenn's relatives, who say 
that he was beaten and had his civil rights violated.

"His life is virtually gone," said Keith Glenn, Nakia Glenn's uncle, who 
lives in Maryland and has been caring for him. "There is a lot of wrong 
here and I'm not going to let it pass."

The State Bureau of Investigation produced its own report on the incident 
and in November turned that document over to Keith, who conducted his own 
investigation. His report includes witness statements, medical documents 
and interviews with the officers. At the center is a videotape made from a 
camera mounted on Wells' patrol car. The tape shows much of what happened 
but it is incomplete, with critical events occurring off camera or without 
sound.

Wells and Simpson are members of the sheriff's Highway Interdiction Team, 
which targets drunken drivers and trucks with safety violations on U.S. 52. 
They told investigators that they were in the Cleveland Avenue neighborhood 
early that Sunday morning looking for a driving-while-impaired suspect. 
Before their shift ended at 4:15 a.m., they planned to refuel their cars at 
the county's gasoline pumps on Fairchild Road.

The deputies were in separate cars when they came upon Glenn and his 
friend, Carlos Antoine Williams, who were in a Pontiac in the middle of 
Cleveland Avenue between 18th and 19th streets, talking to friends. Wells 
blew an air horn twice to get the driver to move the car.

Wells told investigators that the car crossed the double yellow lines twice 
and that he noticed that neither the driver nor passenger was wearing a 
seat belt, which gave him the right to pull the driver over.

The camera didn't begin recording until after the stop, which was at 3:07 a.m.

Simpson was behind Wells, and he pulled his Camaro in front of the sedan. 
Wells pulled up behind. Wells asked to see Glenn's license and 
registration. He took the documents and went to the passenger side to speak 
with Williams.

Simpson asked Glenn to get out and walk to the back of the Pontiac. The two 
talked, but that conversation isn't recorded because only Wells had his 
microphone on.

Sheriff Ron Barker said that is a common practice, because more than one 
microphone can cause feedback or inaudible transmissions. He said he has 
supported the deputies since the beginning and is pleased with Keith's report.

Wells told investigators he became concerned as he spoke with Williams that 
Williams might be armed or have a weapon in the car. He told Simpson to 
release Sam, his patrol dog, a tactic that he told investigators was 
intended to intimidate Glenn and Williams.

Simpson went to handcuff Glenn. Wells came over to help and told Glennthat 
they were doing it for "officer safety."

Seconds later, the video shows Glenn running from Simpson and Wells, around 
the back of the Pontiac. They tackled him off camera, next to a small stone 
wall. During the fight, Glenn was pepper-sprayed twice. Wells also hit 
Glenn at least twice in the head with his patrol flashlight, which caused 
injury.

As the deputies wrestled with Glenn, people started gathering. Wells said 
that one person kicked him. They told him to get on the ground and put his 
hands behind his back.

Wells used a remote control to release Sam and commanded the Belgian 
Malinois to attack Glenn. The dog is trained to grab a suspect's arm and 
pull him down. Glenn bit the dog and Simpson.

Wells told investigators that when Simpson went to put the dog back in the 
patrol car, Glenn dragged Wells to the front of the Pontiac, and Wells 
tried to restrain Glenn in the passenger's seat until help arrived. Both 
deputies said that Glenn was trying to reach for their weapons and that 
they were afraid for their lives, Keith says. It took four officers to 
handcuff Glenn.

In his report, Keith says that there are five people who witnessed most of 
what happened: Simpson, Wells, Glenn, Williams, and Christopher Peoples.

Williams said he saw Glenn get hit with the flashlight. He got out of the 
car and went to see what was going on. He left when Wells released the dog.

Peoples lives at the intersection and said he saw the whole incident from 
his porch. He told Keith and the SBI that the deputies hit Glenn when he 
tried to pull away from them as they were putting him in handcuffs. As 
Wells and Glenn struggled in Glenn's car, Wells yelled that Glenn was 
reaching for his gun, Peoples said. He yelled at Wells, "He ain't reaching 
for your gun when each of you got one arm behind his back."

Keith discounts Peoples' statement. He says that Peoples has a criminal 
record, that his view from the porch was obstructed and that the street 
lacked working street lamps and was too dark to see anything from that 
distance.

At some point, Glenn swallowed a small bag of cocaine. The deputies and 
paramedics said that Glenn's mouth was clenched shut.

The paramedics arrived about 3:25 a.m. and took Glenn to Forsyth Medical 
Center in an ambulance. He was conscious and breathing normally, then had a 
seizure. He suffered brain damage, which has partially paralyzed him and 
makes it difficult for him to talk.

Doctors who treated Glenn told Keith that the brain damage was caused by 
the 27 grams of cocaine he ingested, not Wells' blows. When Glenn was in 
the emergency room, doctors retrieved a small bag of cocaine from his throat.

At the time of his arrest, Glenn was wanted in Georgia on drug-possession 
charges. He has a lengthy arrest record and, during an incident in 1999, he 
ran from a Winston-Salem police officer and swallowed cocaine during the 
arrest.

But Glenn's friends and relatives say that Glenn was also an aspiring music 
producer who was targeted and beaten by the two officers.

The charges against Glenn have been dropped, because Keith said he was too 
sick to stand trial.

After the arrest, many of Glenn's friends and relatives reached out to such 
people as Walter Marshall, a Forsyth County commissioner, for help in 
improving relations between law enforcement and people who live in the 
predominantly black neighborhoods in and around Cleveland Avenue.

Marshall, the former president of the local chapter of the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has provided that 
liaison. He also had questions about the arrest.

But, after seeing the video, he said yesterday that he is convinced that 
the deputies acted appropriately. "Based on the tape, I don't think the 
officers did anything violent," he said. "You didn't hear any hate or anger 
in their voices. What happened to Mr. Glenn was very unfortunate, but this 
was not a Rodney King type situation."

He said he couldn't speak for what can't be seen on the tape, only what can.

But Glenn's relatives have many unanswered questions which they plan to 
deal with in state and federal court.

"I'm absolutely convinced that Nakia's civil rights were violated," Keith 
Glenn said. "Tom Keith has totally closed his eyes to justice."
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