The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A DeKalb County police officer has been reprimanded for using excessive force and being unprofessional when arresting a man in October 2010, internal department documents show.
According to a DeKalb County Police internal affairs investigation acquired by Channel 2 Action News, Officer T.J. Crumpton slammed Brian J. Peterson into an SUV, a police car and to the ground while Peterson was handcuffed.
"I hit the concrete. I feel blood running down my face. Once we get to the patrol car he throws me into it full speed and then he throws me on the ground," Peterson told Channel 2.
Peterson encountered Crumpton on the night of Oct. 20, 2010, while Crumpton was working an off-duty, part-time job at a Memorial Drive bar.
Crumpton charged Peterson with public drunkenness, felony interference with government property (kicking a squad car, the initial incident report says), giving a false name to police and obstruction.
While one person interviewed during the internal affairs investigation supported Crumpton’s assertion, two DeKalb officers told internal affairs investigators that Crumpton was too heavy-handed.
“She saw [Crumpton] throw the suspect into the passenger’s side of a black SUV in the parking lot, causing a dent,” the IA report said Officer S. Harvey stated during an interview. “After arriving at the [police] vehicle, officer Crumpton threw the suspect into the driver’s side rear of the vehicle causing a dent. Officer Crumpton then threw the suspect on the ground causing an injury to his face/head.”
Crumpton’s attorney, Tessie Edwards, declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday.
When taking a lie detector test during the internal investigation, police determined that Crumpton was dishonest when he denied using profanity while arresting Peterson and slamming the man into the two vehicles, according to the internal report.
Peterson spent five days in jail and eventually lost his job as an insurance broker because of the felony charge, his attorney Mark Bullman said in a letter threatening litigation and sent to the department last autumn. The charges against his client, Bullman said, were bogus.
“No one at DCPD has done anything to have the arrest voided and the charges dismissed, despite having overwhelming evidence that no such crime occurred,” Bullman said in the Oct. 17 letter. “Mr. Peterson will be seeking damages associated with loss of his job and income.”
In an interview with Channel 2, Bullman said, "They know Brian did not do this from every witness we spoke to, except officer Crumpton. ... There is absolutely no excuse for that man to have been remaining at the department, none.”
The DeKalb County District Attorney’s office dropped charges against Peterson in November 2011. Speaking about the arrest, the loss of his job and what he had to say to his family, Peterson told Channel 2, "It was embarrassing. It was very hard."
DeKalb police suspended Crumpton for 10 hours.
“For violating federal and state laws and DCPD policy, DCPD saw fit to give Crumpton a day off without pay,” Bullman said of Crumpton’s punishment in his letter. “This response is ludicrous.”
According to personnel records obtained by Channel 2, Crumpton has more than 30 infractions, internal investigations or complaints, including 10 incidences of excessive use of force dating back to 2005.
And one police major, reviewing a 2009 infraction for taking a part-time job without department permission and as a result being unwilling to report on another officer's excessive force, recommended Crumpton be fired.
"In review of IA’s three-year disciplinary history of Officer Crumpton, he has repeatedly shown a patter of misconduct that is indicative of someone who consistently uses poor judgment time and again," Maj. Lionel G. Higdon said in a June 3, 2009 letter to Deputy Chief G.R. Horner obtained by Channel 2.
At that time, Crumpton had amassed four counseling letters and more than two weeks of unpaid suspension between 2007 and 2009 for offenses ranging from insubordination to neglect of duty.
In his letter, Bullman argued that Crumpton should face criminal charges, citing the officer’s history of getting into trouble.
“Crumpton clearly violated Georgia law by false swearing in his affidavits to obtain the felony and other warrants, which he knew were not supported by the facts,” Bullman said. “If anyone should have been arrested for the events of that evening, it is Officer Crumpton.”
The District Attorney’s office is reviewing the case, but no charges have been filed against Crumpton, a spokesman said.
