Saturday, November 27, 2010

Man charged for covering head during police beating


A Miami man whose beating at the hands of police was captured on cell phone video has been charged with resisting arrest without violence, a charge his lawyer says came from nothing more than the man's attempts to cover his head from the blows.

Gilberto Matamoros, a 21-year-old youth center worker, says he was doing nothing wrong when police arrested him during a brawl in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood on Halloween. According to his lawyer, Ricardo Martinez-Cid, Matamoros was picked out of an unruly crowd and beaten unconscious by two Miami police officers. He had to be taken to a nearby hospital.

Martinez-Cid told CBS in Miami that prosecutors had initially told him that all charges against Matamoros would be dropped, but then suddenly changed their minds earlier this week. A charge of disorderly conduct was dropped, but the resisting arrest charge remained in place. ... READ MORE