Lexington police ‘regret’ innocent couple’s fear, injuries. Officers under review.
The Lexington Police Department expressed regret Thursday to an innocent teenage couple who accused officers of brutality.
Preston Gage Slone, 18, and Elena Amayrany Perez, 19, said they were assaulted by Lexington police and a Kentucky State Police trooper on Tuesday when Slone tried to redeem several U.S. savings bonds at Chase Bank on Richmond Road. Slone said officers kneeled on him and he struggled to breathe.
“Lexington Police recognizes that Mr. Slone and Ms. Perez had an unusual and alarming encounter with police,” Brenna Angel, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement. “We regret any fear, anxiety, and injuries this incident caused them.”
Mayor Linda Gorton said Thursday that the city and department “expect professionalism from all of our police officers and we expect them to follow professional standards.”
“Our Public Integrity Unit immediately opened an investigation into this case once the complaint was received,” she said. “The process of interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence is well underway. Kentucky State Police have been contacted in reference to one of their troopers being at the scene. There are some unanswered questions, and some issues to resolve. We expect the investigative process to get to the truth.”
Earlier Thursday, Scott White, the attorney for Slone and Perez, released a letter that had been sent to Police Chief Lawrence Weathers. Chase Bank appears to have called 911 when Slone tried to redeem the bonds because of a counterfeit bond problem at a separate Chase Bank location, the letter said. The bonds were worth about $6,600, but had not matured yet, Slone said.
Lexington police said that the previous call about fraudulent savings bonds came in at 2:55 p.m. from the Chase Bank at the Zandale Shopping Center on Nicholasville Road. The bank employee said it was the sixth Chase Bank that the suspect had visited that day, and officers were told be on the look out for a white male driving a black Chrysler Pacifica, police said.
It was about 15 minutes later when officers found out that “a white male was attempting to redeem several thousand dollars in savings bonds at the Chase Bank on Richmond Road,” police said. Thinking it was the same suspect, Lexington officers and a state trooper showed up and took the two — who drove to the bank in a gold four-door passenger car — into custody, police said.
Chase Bank’s Lexington locations have since sent out an internal memorandum about reporting attempts to cash savings bonds, White’s letter said.
The two allege a state trooper arrived at the bank, grabbed Slone without talking to him, pinned his arms behind his back and searched him. The trooper took Slone outside and sat him down in the parking lot, according to the letter.
“I didn’t know what was going on, I was mind-boggled,” Slone said in an interview on Thursday. “It was like being attacked from behind.”
Perez remained in the car as the altercation began, she said. A “red-headed” Lexington police officer tried to open the car door and demanded that Perez get out, according to the letter. Perez refused to get out until the officer told her what was going on, the letter said.
“I see the cop pull behind my car with his lights flashing, and I go to grab my phone because these days you have to record things, you never know what’s going to happen,” Perez said.
The officer told Perez that the car “had been involved in ‘an ongoing crime in Lexington,’” according to the letter.
In total, Slone estimated there were at least five officers at the scene. White, his lawyer, said they wouldn’t know for sure until they’d obtained more records from the police.
Perez kept asking questions, and the “officer physically forced her out” of the car, grabbed her hair, handcuffed her and took her to a transport wagon, according to the letter.
The officer pulled out a clump of Perez’s hair, according to the letter. At that point, Perez and Slone still had not been told what crimes they were accused of, according to the letter.
Perez took video of part of the interaction, and it shows a Lexington police officer demanding that Perez get out of the car because of a fraud investigation.
“Step out or I’m going to remove you out of the car,” the officer said in the video.
Slone asked to call his grandmother and was given permission, he said. After talking with his grandmother, he then called Perez’s mother to let her know what was happening. Perez’s mother asked where they were, and when Slone told her, an officer told him to get off the phone and forced him to the ground, he said.
Slone said he was “pushed down, with my head to the ground, with knees in my neck and top of my head and my back. I didn’t know if I was going to lose my life, I was fearful for my life, fearful what was going to happen to her (Perez). A state of emergency came over my body as I’m telling them I can’t breathe. One of the officers said clearly to me: ‘Shut up, if you’re talking, you’re breathing.’”
Sgt. Donnell Gordon said officers are able to kneel on people who are trying to resist arrest, but they emphasize getting them up and making sure their airway is clear as soon as they are put in handcuffs.
“Here in our department, if we have to make an arrest in that way, we try to be mindful of the placement,” Gordon said.
Sgt. Kevin Kidd, who trains Lexington officers on how to properly detain subjects resisting arrest, said the neck area is supposed to be avoided.
“That is absolutely a no-go zone,” Kidd said. When kneeling on someone’s back, officers are supposed to put their shin across the subject’s back at a 45-degree angle, Kidd said.
Lt. Ronald Spurlock, another Lexington police trainer, said that officers are told to try to maintain a conversation with their subjects in order to make sure they are still breathing.
At that point, Perez said she had been moved to the back of a police wagon, while Slone said he was on the ground for close to an hour in total. When officers tackled Slone, Perez said, officers near her yelled that Slone was attempting to flee. After being tackled, Slone remained on the ground.
Slone’s grandmother and Perez’s mother both arrived at the scene and said they experienced rude treatment from officers, according to the letter.
The letter said Jason Newman, a detective, arrived after the altercation and asked the officers to release Slone and Perez. He did not charge them, the letter said.
Police said that detectives from the Financial Crimes Unit and officers from the earlier Chase Bank incident arrived to the scene and helped determine that Slone and Perez were not involved in the earlier incident. The bonds were given to a detective who returned them to Slone’s attorney after contacting the U.S. Treasury, police said.
Slone and Perez said after the incident, they had to speak with one more officer and then went immediately home. The incident took a while to process, they both said. They waited until the next day to go to the emergency room. Slone said he was “scared to be out.”
Perez had a closed-head injury, without loss of consciousness, scalp pain and a forearm contusion, according to CHI Saint Joseph records released by the attorney. Slone had a closed head injury with concussion, facial abrasion and a neck contusion.
“We haven’t slept,” Slone said. “(Perez) has had nightmares, she’s woke up three or four times out of her sleep crying with nightmares and panic attacks during the night where she feels like she can’t breath.”
Perez said she called her doctor on Thursday to ask to be put on strong anti-anxiety medication.
Both said they understand that there are “some good cops and some bad cops.” Perez said one officer, “the nicest one there,” inside the transport wagon “was remorseful, speaking politely, understanding and actually letting me talk.”
“It just blows my mind that they came in full force, grabbed people and can throw them around after everything that’s been going on,” Slone said in reference to protests against police violence that have gripped the country in recent weeks after George Floyd died. Floyd had been restrained by a police officer’s knee to the neck.
Perez said she’s seen police violence on the news, “but when it happens to you, it’s a completely different feeling.”
White said officers’ names and badge numbers were not visible during the altercation. The letter requested that the names of the officers be released, the “red-headed” officer be suspended without pay immediately, and records related to the case be made available.
Perez, Slone and their counsel also said in the letter that they were filing a formal complaint against the “red-headed” officer and requested that the disciplinary process be transparent and include a non-city employee appointed by the city council.
“We are likely to follow a lawsuit in the next week,” White said. “I’m more curious to see what LPD is going to do.”
White said this was a case of a couple cops “thinking they’re really powerful.”
“They really stepped into a bad situation.”
LPD said in its statement that the department’s review of the officers’ actions is ongoing.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Lexington police ‘regret’ innocent couple’s fear, injuries. Officers under review.."