A teenager was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but the body camera footage just cleared the case. Now, 18-year-old Dailen Brewer is suing the City of Indianapolis and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Robyn Frazier, accusing the officer of fabricating the story that put him behind bars. According to federal court records, the Dailen Brewer lawsuit was filed July 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana and seeks a jury trial over alleged civil rights violations.
Video
The case traces back to April 12, when Brewer drove into Riverside Park with a friend. According to reporting from the Indianapolis Star, police had begun diverting traffic from the park because congestion could have made it harder for emergency vehicles to get through. Brewer entered his red Honda HR V and parked before Frazier followed him and approached the vehicle.What happened next became the center of the case.
Frazier wrote in a probable cause affidavit that she saw Brewer pointing a revolver in her direction. The affidavit stated:
“While Sgt Frazier began visually scanning the vehicle, the driver identified as Dailen Brewer appeared to be pointing a revolver towards Sgt Frazier at the door panel… Sgt Frazier saw the barrel end of the revolver point in her direction. Brewer raised the revolver, then dropped then gun and raised both hands.”
But when the body camera footage was released, the video did not show Brewer pointing a gun at Frazier. According to a second Indianapolis Star review of the nearly six-minute recording, Brewer’s hands are not visible during every moment of the footage, but when Frazier opens the driver’s door, both Brewer and his passenger can be seen with their hands raised.
The video shows Brewer moving his left arm across his body shortly before Frazier draws her service weapon. His hands then return to the air as Frazier continues pointing her gun toward the vehicle, according to the Star’s frame-by-frame review. Firearms can be seen inside the car, but the footage does not capture Brewer pointing one at the officer.
Brewer was arrested anyway. The Indianapolis Star reported that he was booked on preliminary allegations including attempted murder, intimidation of an officer, resisting law enforcement while a weapon was drawn, and two counts of pointing a firearm. Those allegations were later reduced to a single firearm pointing charge.
Four days after Brewer went to jail, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the case.
Prosecutors cited “evidentiary problems” and said the “body-worn camera footage does not support the allegations in the probable cause affidavit,” according to the Star. Brewer was released April 16.
The Dailen Brewer lawsuit argues the damage did not end when he walked out of jail. According to the federal complaint as detailed by TheGrio, Brewer alleges false arrest, fabrication of evidence, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, and defamation. He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages from Frazier and the city.
The lawsuit also takes issue with how IMPD publicly described Brewer’s arrest. According to the Indianapolis Star, the department posted on social media that Brewer “made a gesture like he pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire” and then looked at the weapon as though he was surprised. That allegation did not appear in Frazier’s probable cause affidavit.
After the criminal case was dismissed, IMPD told the Star that body cameras are valuable but only capture part of an officer’s field of view and do not record everything an officer experiences. When the full footage was released May 1, IMPD Chief Tanya Terry said the department understood the incident had caused concern and frustration and that releasing the video was intended to provide additional context.
Brewer, meanwhile, told the Indianapolis Star that the arrest cost him his job. The newspaper reported that a search of Marion County court and police databases found no previous criminal history for him. His mother, Delores Brewer, said he had been working in construction before losing that position following the arrest.
“The truth always comes to light, you know,” Brewer told the Star after his release.
More than three months later, the Dailen Brewer lawsuit has moved the dispute from a criminal courtroom into federal civil court. The publicly available federal docket confirms the complaint against Frazier and Indianapolis, but does not show a ruling on Brewer’s allegations. His claims against the officer and city therefore remain allegations unless and until they are proven in court.
For Brewer, however, one major piece of the criminal case has already been decided. Prosecutors reviewed the video, found that it did not support the allegations in the probable cause affidavit, and dismissed the charges that had kept him locked up for four days.
