Nightstick Allegedly Rammed in His Mouth

The Washington Post



July 29, 1989, Saturday, Final Edition


Charges Dropped Against Man In Fairfax Police Beating Case;


Nightstick Allegedly Rammed in His Mouth


BYLINE: DeNeen Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer


SECTION: METRO; PAGE B7


LENGTH: 376 words


A Fairfax County prosecutor dropped trespassing and public drunkenness charges yesterday against a man who had accused county police of shoving a nightstick into his mouth and beating him after he refused to give them information about someone else. Raymond F. Morrogh, deputy commonwealth's attorney, said he decided to drop the charges after police went to him yesterday and told him that a settlement had been reached with the defendant, Steve Martin. The details of the agreement were not immediately available.


"It seemed like the fair thing to do, considering what happened," Morrogh said. Martin, who is black, said he was beaten by white police officers during the March 31 incident. Disciplinary actions have since been taken against five officers, not all of whom were directly involved in the assault, sources said.As a result of that and other recent incidents, some blacks in the county have accused police of racial bias and the Justice Department has started an investigation.About three weeks ago, county prosecutors dropped charges against another man whose case is being investigated by the Justice Department for possible civil rights violations.Martin, 27, who is being held on an unrelated charge of stealing a truck, said from jail yesterday that he had no knowledge that the other charges had been dropped and planned to sue police for beating him.Martin said that after the news of the beating spread, police in the county had been harassing him and he had been threatened by guards in the county jail who were angered by his charges against the police."They be trying to jump me up here. They are against me because they against what I'm doing to police on the street," he said."That's just totally not true," said Fairfax County Sheriff M. Wayne Huggins, whose department operates the jail. "We have two separate agencies. My deputies have more to do than to be concerned about the likes of Steve Martin."Martin pulled down his bottom lip and displayed a gap where, he said, a tooth had been knocked loose by a nightstick. The police department had offered Martin $ 1,000 to repair the tooth, but Martin said he did not know where the offer stood and had gone to the dentist to have the tooth pulled.