Officer was caught on video
planting drugs.
By Marcus K. Garner
The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
A DeKalb County police officer
turned himself in Friday on accusations he illegally charged a man with having
marijuana during a 2012 arrest.
Officer Demetrius A. Kendrick
was indicted Thursday by a DeKalb grand jury on the charge of violation of oath
by public officer, authorities said.
The man Kendrick arrested,
Alphonso Eleby, says video footage showed Kendrick planting drugs before the
arrest.
A DeKalb Superior Court judge
set a $10,000 bond for Kendrick, who was given 24 hours to turn himself in to
the DeKalb County Jail, authorities said.
Kendrick, 33, was booked into
the jail Friday around 9:30 a.m., and released on bond just after 10:15 a.m.,
according to jail records.
If convicted, he faces up to
five years in prison, prosecutors say.
In March 2013, Kendrick was
placed on restrictive duty, which means he was off the streets, police said. He
is now on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation,
police said.
Prosecutors say Kendrick, a
five-year DeKalb cop, wrongfully arrested Eleby on July 6, 2012, and charged
him with marijuana possession even though the officer knew Eleby didn’t have
drugs on him.
Eleby’s attorney says Kendrick
was caught on videotape planting drugs on Eleby.
On July 6, 2012, Eleby stopped
to talk to someone inside a black SUV parked at the Chevron gas station on
North Hairston Road.
Police officers claimed they
smelled marijuana and arrested the person in the vehicle, according to police
reports obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Eleby’s attorney Mark Bullman
said his client was detained and strip-searched, but no drugs were found.
Video of the incident obtained
by Channel 2 Action News shows a female officer stand over Eleby and watch him
while other officers search the SUV.
The video shows a male officer
Bullman identified as Kendrick call the female officer over to the SUV. While
she searches the vehicle, the video shows the male officer circle back to Eleby
and toss marijuana next to him.
The video shows Eleby
protesting what he sees the officer do and the officer puts him in a choke-hold
while other officers look on.
In his report, Kendrick said
that while arresting the driver of the SUV, “I observed Mr. Eleby throw a small
piece of a green leafy substance behind him.”
Bullman argued that Eleby had
no way to throw anything.
“My client had his hands on his
knees as he was instructed and all of his pockets were rabbit-eared,” Bullman
said. “They’d searched in his crotch and reached inside his underwear and found
nothing. Where was he going to hide drugs?”
The DeKalb County
Solicitor-General’s office dropped the charges against Eleby in March 2013, but
not because of anything on the video.
According to court records,
police couldn’t find the marijuana Eleby was accused of having in time to be
tested and used at trial.
Police said an internal
investigation into Kendrick’s conduct was started early this month.
Bullman lamented what he sees
as a delay.
“It is disturbing, at best,
that it took almost two years after the clearly unconstitutional and illegal
actions of Officer Kendrick for the DeKalb County Police Department to initiate
an internal investigation into this matter,” he said. “They have had clear,
independent evidence of Kendrick’s crimes for the balance of this time, during
which Mr. Eleby was under threat of criminal charges the county knew to be
false.
“Nevertheless, we were pleased
to learn (DeKalb County Public Safety Director Cedric) Alexander directed that
an investigation be initiated.”
