Tavorise Marks of the Chesterfield Branch of the NAACP (left) listens as James Monk offers his version of the events in March when he was stopped by Chesterfield police for having illegally tinted car windows.
Tavorise Marks of the Chesterfield branch of the NAACP, left, listens as James Monk speaks during a press conference in Chesterfield County on Thursday May 31, 2018.
A Chesterfield County police officer’s use of a Taser to restrain an uncooperative driver during a traffic stop violated department policy because the suspect did not put anyone in immediate danger, the department acknowledged this week.
Like many law enforcement agencies, Chesterfield changed its policy two years ago to conform with a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that said police are prohibited from using the devices to subdue resisting suspects unless they think there is a “risk of immediate danger” to themselves or others.
During the traffic stop in March, police used pepper spray twice on 21-year-old James Monk of Richmond after he refused repeated commands to turn onto his stomach so officers could handcuff him. Ultimately, he was brought under control with a Taser and taken into custody.
This week, an official with the Chesterfield Branch of the NAACP, acting independently of the organization, alerted the media about the March 28 traffic stop near Virginia State University, accusing the officers of assault and alleging that they used excessive force against Monk, who is black.
Capt. Randy Horowitz, commander of the department’s Office of Professional Standards, said the only policy the officers violated was the one governing Taser use. Punches to Monk’s body by the police while Monk was struggling — which Horowitz called “distractionary blows” — did not constitute a violation of policy under such circumstances, the captain said.
Horowitz said the four officers involved in the incident have been given “refresher training” on Taser use.
Police have charged Monk with obstruction of justice and having illegal window tint on his car
Both police and Tavorise K. Marks, chairman of the Chesterfield NAACP legal redress committee, encouraged the news media to view the body camera footage ahead of a news conference Thursday scheduled by Marks. A Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter and editor viewed the video this week at police headquarters. Police did not release copies of the videos.
“It was crazy,” Monk said of the traffic stop during Thursday’s news conference, which Chesterfield NAACP President L.J. McCoy said later was not authorized by the organization. “It was really hard to go through, knowing that you did not know what was going to happen.”
“I was traumatized being blind, due to the pepper spray,” Monk said. “He told me to step out of the car, [I] followed all the rules, I didn’t feel like I did anything wrong. It was very uncalled for.”
Asked by reporters at the news conference whether he should have done anything differently when officers asked him to comply with their commands, he said, “It’s like I did everything I could to make this situation go as smooth as possible ... what I had to do.”
Police said they stopped the car Monk was driving about 12:30 a.m. for having illegally tinted windows. The car was pulled over at Second Avenue at James Street as it was headed toward the nearby VSU campus.
After Monk was stopped and still in his car, the officer advised Monk of the illegal window tint before walking back to his patrol car to make several checks.
When the officer re-emerged, he told backup officers who had arrived on the scene that he smelled a “strong odor” of marijuana in Monk’s car, and they were going to get Monk out of the vehicle to detain him. A female passenger was also inside.
The video shows Monk beginning to struggle with the officers almost as soon as he is ordered out of his vehicle and is pressed against the car to be handcuffed. An officer yells, “Stop, stop, stop” as Monk moves one of his hands to his waistband and resists attempts by the officers to handcuff him, which is standard procedure while officers search a car.
“You’re stopping me for no reason,” Monk says. “What’s the reason?”
“You smell like weed,” an officer replies.
“I ain’t doing nothing [wrong],” Monk says.
At that point, the officer who initially stopped Monk, along with several others who were called as backup, put Monk on the ground as they continued their efforts to handcuff him. The officers shouted, “Get on your stomach!” more than two dozen times but Monk failed to comply. They also ordered: “Give me your hands.”
As he was lying on the ground but still refusing to roll over onto his stomach, the video shows officers twice spraying Monk with pepper spray after issuing him warnings. After the first burst of pepper spray, the woman in Monk’s car can be heard telling him, “Get on your stomach.”
At one point, one of the officers, while on top of Monk, can be seen throwing punches toward Monk’s body.
Marks said the officer was assaulting Monk for no reason. Police said the officer struck Monk in the right side of his ribs four times “as a distractionary technique in an attempt to get his hands behind his back for handcuffing.”
As the confrontation came to a head, the officer who initiated the traffic stop warned Monk that he would be shot with a Taser if he didn’t get on his stomach. Monk was lying on his back with his arms outstretched. “I’m not doing anything [wrong],” he says.
The officer then shot Monk with his Taser — 3 minutes and 14 seconds after the struggle began. Monk immediately flopped on his stomach and was handcuffed.
After arresting Monk, police searched his vehicle but did not find any marijuana or other contraband. Police said Monk smelled like marijuana, and they thought he had either smoked pot or had been around someone who had been smoking.
While police have recognized the use of the Taser did not comport with department policy, they said Marks’ account of the traffic stop contains “numerous significant inconsistencies” that do not accurately reflect what the body camera video shows.
The police rebutted Marks’ assertions that Monk was struck three times with a Taser and also the allegations that Monk was “violently punched/jabbed four times” and that he “did not resist at all during this interaction.”
The video shows a Taser being used once on Monk.
Horowitz said every use of force by officers is reviewed by the department’s chain of command and the Office of Professional Standards. He said the incident involving Monk was identified as one requiring further review more than a month before the NAACP contacted the department.
An official internal investigation was initiated on April 12. Marks met with police on May 25 to review the body camera footage. Marks said the NAACP began its own investigation on May 9.
Marks said his organization is considering legal action against the officers involved, but provided no specifics.
However, McCoy — who said he is the Chesterfield NAACP ’s official spokesperson — called Thursday’s gathering a “non-approved press conference that Mr. Marks wanted to hold without discussing details with myself, or the vice president, or the executive committee.”
McCoy said he can’t judge without further details whether the traffic stop was appropriate, but based on his limited understanding of the event, “I did not see the violation.”
McCoy said his organization has a good relationship with Chesterfield police and it’s the organization’s practice to meet and discuss issues with the department when they arise. “I’m in conversation now with the police department for the next couple of days to discuss this and any other issues with them,” he said.
At Thursday’s press conference, Marks said he is making three demands: that the department create a policy that will allow the release of police body camera video through a Freedom of Information Act request; that immediate disciplinary action is taken against the officers who received additional training on the use of Tasers; and for the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors to create a “community review board” of five members, including three citizens, to review any complaints of excessive force by police.
“Yes, Mr. Monk was asked to turn over on his stomach numerous times,” Marks said in his remarks. “But I ask you to put yourself in his shoes in that moment in time. You’re surrounded by law enforcement, it’s night, everyone has a Taser or some type of weapon pointed at you, you’ve been pepper sprayed. It’s a chaotic moment. But you can see in that chaotic moment that he wasn’t being aggressive. At no point in time did he pose a threat or immediate danger to any of those officer.”
