Video Shows NYPD Cop Gave False Testimony In RNC Arrest

[rainbow4321]

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/112155/index.php


In the first jury trial stemming from the mass arrests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, video and photographic evidence showed that police testimony in the case appeared to have been entirely fabricated. Judge Gerald Harris granted a motion to dismiss all charges against Dennis Kyne on December 16th, 2004, after the defendant’s attorneys produced the evidence contradicting statements made by NYPD officer Matthew Wohl while under oath.

Officer Wohl said that he personally arrested Dennis Kyne, with two other officers assisting, and that Mr. Kyne was “screaming, yelling, and moving around” during the arrest. Wohl’s testimony goes on to claim that Kyne dropped to the ground and four officers (including Wohl) had to pick him up and carry him while Kyne “squirmed and screamed”. Asked explicitly how Mr. Kyne had resisted arrest, Wohl stated that Kyne’s “mouth, heart, and eyes” moved while he lunged around.

However, the videotapes and photographs of the events in front of the library showed Mr. Kyne walking away from the library while police arrested several people, when a police officer in a white shirt yelled “That’s a collar!”, in an apparent reference to Kyne. At this point, two other officers grabbed Mr. Kyne and forced him onto his knees, then applied plastic cuffs. None of the officers in the videotape or photographs is Officer Wohl. Another officer in a white shirt then approaches and tells the arresting officers to charge Kyne with “Dis con and resisting.” During this process, Mr. Kyne can be heard saying, “I’m not resisting.” None of the events described by Officer Wohl took place, as the images make clear, and Wohl was not present in the videos and did not participate in the arrest.

At one point, Wohl testified that his captain told him to arrest everyone within a certain area. Later, he stated that he could not really tell the difference between protestors, bystanders, and people merely coming and going from the library. The combination of an officer unable to discern between supposed suspects and innocent pedestrians, and an order from superior officers to make mass arrests based on geographic location rather than specific incidents, would seem to suggest there is a very real potential that large numbers of detainees were wrongly arrested and incarcerated

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. That cop needs to be disciplined at the very least

And I can't wait to see all the lawsuits that come next for unlawful arrests, perjury and assault on the public.

To the people so persecuted, get all you can - take them for all they got. It's better in your pocket than Bloomy's or Halliburtons.




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[Pam-Moby]

2. I hope they follow through with a investagation....

A small smack on the hand is their form of discipline these days.

BTW Cronus Protagonist I love your "I see dumb people" HAHAHA

My hubby has a t-shirt with "I see dead people and they don't like you" You would be surprised how many odd looks we get when he wears it.

[Dr.Phool]

3. The cop should be charged.

With Perjury. A Felony.

[noamnety]

4. Letter to Matthew Wohl

Dear Officer Wohl,

Hi, Sir! Thank you for your help in arresting and prosecuting the disruptors at the Republican Convention this last summer. I read some of your testimony about arresting Dennis Kyne. I was shocked to read the details about him resisting arrest. The image you painted, of his “mouth, heart and eyes” moving around while four of you tried to subdue him, is terrifying. One can only imagine the threat he would have posed if he’d been allowed to roam freely at the public library. A library is no place for people’s eyes to be moving. Behavior like that leads to reading, and reading leads to education, and we all know what that leads to – turning into one of those liberals, with their liberal values – or should I say lack of values.

I read that people are criticizing you now because you testified that you personally were involved in the arrest, although video tape appears to show you had nothing to do with it, and were not present in the videos. For what it’s worth, I don’t believe the videos, and I don’t give any credit to the naysayers. They weren’t there, they don’t know how it was. Not like you, because you're an officer, you know what it’s like to arrest people, so you can speak with a lot of authority about the events as you saw them, even if you weren’t there either.

I like that idea your captain had about arresting anyone who was hanging around the library during the convention. I would like to know if that program is still active, because I think it’s a great idea for keeping all of us secure, and not just during the convention. Terrorists could strike anytime, anywhere, and not just in big cities.

I live in a medium city, in Michigan, and we have a lot of libraries here, and I’ve been to a few of them, and I don’t like the looks of everyone who hangs out at the libraries in the Midwest. Have you ever been to Michigan? Anyway, the library in Sterling Heights is in the same building as the police station, so someone was using their brain when they designed that one. But I noticed the library in Romeo is a stand-alone building. Is there a way to have people arrested at that library? Is that something I could do as one of those citizen arrests, or do I need to be deputized somehow? Also, I would like to know about bookstores. I don’t like them either, except for the ones that sell coffee. I only hung out at one of them because my daughter was in a play at a Barnes and Noble, so I drank some coffee during rehearsals. That was about 2 years ago. I didn’t look at any books; I’m not that kind of woman.

May the “force” be with us!

[Downtown Hound]

5. That sounds like perjury to me

A felony. He should be charged. Hey, don't get mad at me officer. It's the law, and I'm just enforcing it. How many times have I heard that from police?