Lexington police release body camera footage after teens were wrongly accused of fraud
Body camera footage released by the Lexington Police Department shows a Kentucky State Police officer pulling a young woman out of a vehicle by her hair and placing his knee on the head and neck area of a young man in an incident at Chase Bank.
Elena Amayrany Perez, 19, and Preston Gage Slone, 18, went to the Richmond Road bank Tuesday afternoon to cash U.S. savings bonds that Slone had been given for his high school graduation.
Lexington police said a Chase Bank employee contacted them Tuesday afternoon to report that a man had been trying to cash fraudulent bonds at multiple Chase locations that day. About 15 minutes later, police said they received information that “a white male was attempting to redeem several thousand dollars in savings bonds at the Chase Bank on Richmond Road.”
Slone, who was inside the bank with the bonds he had received as a gift, said a state police trooper came up behind him and, without talking to him, pinned his hands behind his back and searched him.
The young couple were not involved in the scam, and they can be heard in the videos released by police asking why they are being detained. They told officers that Slone had received the bonds for his graduation and that they had called ahead before coming to the bank.
After he had been detained and was sitting down in front of the bank, the body cam video shows Slone talking on the phone when one of the officers reaches down and touches his arm, saying “Who you talking to now? They’re not coming here. They can wait across the street if they want.”
Slone slightly shrugs away from the officer’s hand.
The state police trooper then leans down to get Slone’s left hand and begins to maneuver Slone’s arm around his back.
Slone stands up, and at least two other police officers join the state police trooper to force him to the ground, saying “stop resisting.”
A Taser is clearly visible against Slone’s back.
The video shows the state police officer with one knee in Slone’s neck or lower face area for about 10 seconds. Slone tells them he can’t breathe.
“If you can talk you can breathe,” one of the officers says.
After Slone is sitting up, the officer can be heard saying, “I actually gave you the courtesy to use your phone until you pushed me away.”
Slone does not appear to push the officer in the videos.
Another officer later says “you all are going to learn a very hard lesson today, both of you.”
Other footage shows the state police officer pulling Perez out of the vehicle by her hair while other officers grab her arms. Throughout the encounter, Perez asks why they are detaining her.
Both teens were treated for head injuries after the incident, according to information released by their attorney.
Later, after the officers discovered they had wrongly accused Slone and after Slone’s grandmother had arrived, one officer said, “I guess these guys are legit, but he picked the worst day in the world he could possibly cash these bonds.”
Kentucky State Police Sgt. Joshua Lawson said in an email Friday night that the state police are “reviewing available information and will be investigating KSP’s involvement. No further information is available at this time.”
Lexington police on Thursday expressed regret for “any fear, anxiety, and injuries this incident caused” the couple.
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said Thursday that the Public Integrity Unit began investigating as soon as the city received a complaint.
She said the city and police department “expect professionalism from all of our police officers and we expect them to follow professional standards.”
Scott White, the attorney representing the two teens, said Friday night that the footage shows through conversations between police that there was a “presumption of guilt.”
“They go in with a particular attitude that their mind is made up, and that informs everything that they do,” he said of the officers involved. “That is what leads to incidents of brutality.”
White said the footage also shows that officers were “definitely spinning it a particular way” as they discussed the situation with superiors. For example, White said one officer can be heard telling another who arrived later that Slone had tried to run away.
“You just lied to your own boss,” White said. The officer also did not mention that Slone had been pinned down stating that he couldn’t breathe during the encounter.
“These are just classic examples of how not to do policework,” he said.
And White pointed out that Perez’s mother can be heard in one video asking for the names and badge numbers of the officers involved, but she does not get an answer.
“You have to give that information out,” he said. “They knew they had a problem. There is no doubt of that.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 8:19 AM.
