Manatee county detective the subject of a FBI civil rights complaint
http://www.mysuncoast.com/news/manat...9598f4313.html
Manatee Co., FL - The local chapter of the NAACP has filed a civil rights complaint with the FBI against a Manatee county deputy.
It all started with what should have been a routine traffic stop but ended with a man, who appears to have nothing to do with the initial stop, being arrested.
"I heard a knock on the door, bang, bang, bang" said Manatee county resident, Ricky Williams. Williams is describing the night of December 5, 2016 when a Manatee County Sheriff Detective paid him an unexpected visit.
"Then all of a sudden he said do you have a red sweater. I said no, he said aww do you have ID, and I said yes my identification is in my room and he said can I go get it? I said yes. As I turned to get my identification, Officer Wran turned, came through the screen, came through all of this, came in my house, grabbed me and drugged me outside, body slammed me on the ground here," added Williams.
Williams was arrested for obstruction of justice. According to Manatee County Sheriff Office's incident report, Detective Wran had just completed a traffic stop where the passenger ran off. That person's description was black male with dreads.
"Mr. Williams happens to be black and has dreads and the person that they were chasing had flip flops, so I guess if you’re black and have dreads you run the risk of being arrested," said Manatee County NAACP President, Rodney Jones.
The incident resulted in a MCSO misconduct complaint. During the investigation the K-9 deputy who was also on the scene stated... "the K9 did not track to the doorway the subject was in".
The K9 deputy's interview went on to say, the dog tracked the suspect to another yard and over a fence. As a result, the internal investigation sustained the misconduct complaint on allegations of "NEGLECT OF DUTY".
The report read.. "Detective Wrens actions on December 5th, 2016, which resulted in the arrest of Ricky Williams was based on an unlawful stop and detention based on a vague suspect description. As a mitigating factor, the circumstances surrounding the arrest are void of any malice or intentional ill will and can be attributed to a lack of knowledge concerning criminal law procedures."
The Detective was reprimanded with a suspension of 25. 8 unpaid hours. But NAACP President Rodney Jones isn't happy.
"For us, it was quite stunning that you would be able to basically assault someone and falsely arrest them. Conspire a charge to get him arrested and then the Sheriff office refuses to address the issue of the civil rights violation with Deputy Wran going into the home," added Jones.
In addition to the allegations of civil rights violations. Williams says he is battling prostate cancer and during the arrest he had to be taken to the hospital.
"When he grabbed me out of my house, I was like ohh he's gunna kill me! They got away with it as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t do anything wrong. I'm not happy about that because the same people who did this to me is still out there," said Williams.
We reached out the the Sheriff's office but they repeatedly declined to comment.
The charges against Mr. Williams were eventually dropped. And the FBI Civil Rights complaint has been filed, but no word yet about the progress of that complaint.
