Three Florida deputies were charged after video shows a 15-year-old being punched and slammed to the ground during a brutal arrest outside of a McDonald’s in Broward County.
Officers Gregory LaCerra, 51, and Christopher Krickovich, 29, with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office were charged for allegedly beating and pepper spraying the teen during the April arrest.
According to a charging affidavit, the officers were also found to be falsifying documents after the incident. Both were charged with battery, falsifying records, and conspiracy to falsify records when describing the circumstances of the teen’s arrest.
A third officer, 49-year-old Ralph Mackey, was also charged with falsifying records and conspiracy, according to the affidavit. They each were suspended without pay.
Video from the arrest, obtained by ABC affiliate WPLG, showed two of the officers slamming the boy’s face onto the ground and hitting him in the head near Tamarac, Florida, on April 18. Witnesses were heard screaming and begging the officers to stop as they appeared to tackle him, according to cell phone video.
The teen’s family has hired civil rights attorneys Benjamin Crump and Sue-Ann Robinson to represent them. “Wearing a badge is not a license to hurt children and then lie about it — with these charges, the world can now see clearly that is what happened,” the attorneys told WPLG in a statement after the charges were announced.
“The fact that the officers were charged with falsifying records and conspiracy to falsify records is rare, and it may represent a new trend in accountability for law enforcement officials.”
