Robert Leone
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO HAVE THEM INVESTIGATED
Dashcam of BRUTAL beatings by cops after stopping the wrong man. Pennsylvania State Police pursued Robert for a MINOR traffic violation that he apparently DID NOT commit. While Robert was detained he was nearly killed by the police while they executed their form of street justice. He suffered through 11 hours of multiple beatings. He was tasered at least 10 times. He was also chemically maced. He spent more than 2 1/2 years in JAIL. Robert was charged with felony assault on a police officer because the officer broke his hand when he punched Robert in the head with his fist while he was being detained! This is part of a BIGGER story of police brutality, corruption, and official coverup throughout the Pennsylvania judicial system. This video is chapter one of this story – visit http://worsethanrodneyking.com to watch this story unfold and to participate in the discussion.
After I released this video it quickly went viral. The reaction to this video has been a public firestorm of protests and demands for investigations – and yet the police involved are still on the street. They have NOT been punished in any way. Sadly, not a single politician has taken a stand by publicly speaking up.
You are the key. The officials in Bradford County Pennsylvania will do nothing. Only public reaction will get results – so please “like” my Facebook page and participate in the discussion!
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MEDIA INQUIRIES: Contact Larry Hohol at LarryHohol@live.com or visit http://www.worsethanrodneyking.com and use the website contact form. If you link to or embed this video on your website, please credit the author of the video, Larry Hohol with a link to http://www.theluzernecountyrailroad.com/http://www.theluzernecountyrailroad.com
A federal jury has decided Pennsylvania state troopers did not use excessive force during the 2010 arrest of a Vestal native.
The verdict in Robert Leone’s police brutality lawsuit was handed down Monday from jurors in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania after a week long trial. Leone’s lawsuit accused Pennsylvania troopers of assaulting him during an arrest in March 2010 on Route 6 in Bradford County. Authorities said police began looking for Leone because he struck another car at a stoplight and refused to pull over for officers. Joan Leone on Tuesday described the outcome of her son’s case as the end of a frustrating and emotional five-year ordeal. She said her son’s attorneys called the family on Monday afternoon with news of the verdict. We were very disappointed,” she said. “When we heard, (Robert) turned around to us and said, ‘The fix was in,’ then went into his room, and he’s been there every since. What a sad day.” A video of the incident was captured by a police cruiser’s dashboard camera, and it showed one officer appear to jump from the top of Leone’s car onto his back. Others appear to strike Leone with feet and fists. After three minutes, in the video, Leone is pulled from the ground and placed in the back of the police car. Although he is no longer visible on camera, the camera’s audio recording captures a four-minute, profanity-laced tirade by an unidentified police officer. Leone’s lawsuit was filed March 7, 2012, in the U.S. District Court.
Court documents claim that troopers punched, kicked, stomped and jumped on Leone, then 31, while he lay face down, and used their Tasers multiple times — even as he lay on a hospital gurney.
According to documents, a charge against Leone of resisting arrest stemmed from a broken pinkie finger suffered by an officer who punched Leone in the head. None of the troopers involved in the incident faced criminal prosecution after an independent investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police. Through court filings, they denied the allegations in Leone’s lawsuit. Leone’s lawyers argued that the Vestal man had been mentally ill at the time of the incident and was under the influence of prescription medication. Court records indicate Leone had 19 times the therapeutic level of amphetamines in his system when apprehended, along with a bottle of legally prescribed Adderall. the arrest, Leone was charged with 24 counts, including aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment and attempting to flee officers. He was convicted on four of those counts in August 2010, and served 2 years in jail.
All 5 troopers involved in this incident were found “Not Guilty” in Federal Court of any wrong doing by a jury. It should be noted that Robert’s own attorney’s never called a single trooper to the stand to even identify them. The jury had no choice in their verdict.
The mug shot shows a bruised and battered face that Robert Leone alleged was the result of police brutality.
A Luzerne County jury on Monday disagreed.
After just under three hours of deliberations, a jury in the federal civil rights trial against five Pennsylvania state troopers unanimously agreed troopers did not violate Leone’s rights when they beat, stunned and pepper sprayed him for refusing to comply with their commands in March 2010.
“We’re very grateful that the jury took the time today to consider all the evidence put before them, and we’re very happy with the verdict they came out with based upon the facts of the incident, not based upon any propaganda or anything else,” said Capt. James Degnan, commanding officer of Troop P in Wyoming.
The lawsuit alleged Cpl. Roger Stipcak and troopers Scott Renfer, Andrew Burian, Matthew Knock and Thad Warnick took things too far after stopping Leone, 36, of Vestal, New York, for fleeing police.
During closing arguments, Pittsburgh-based defense attorney Trent Echard argued state troopers violated Leone’s constitutional rights by using unreasonable excessive force during the stop and then lying to cover it up.
Leone, he said, needed to be stopped and police were justified in using an immobilization technique to bring his vehicle to a stop during the low-speed, 15-mile chase in Bradford County. But police took it too far when they pulled a stun gun on Leone and began punching him in the head, spraying him with pepper spray and beating him with a baton, he alleged.
Police took it even further by cursing at Leone, calling him stupid and threatening him, Echard said.
“That just shouldn’t happen in America,” Echard said. “We determine what’s reasonable and what’s not reasonable in this courtroom. …This is the battleground for the Fourth Amendment.”
But Senior Deputy Attorney General Abbe Giunta countered that what happened to Leone was nobody’s fault but his own. The troopers were using an appropriate amount of force — and acted in accordance with state police policy — to subdue and restrain Leone, who was unresponsive and uncooperative, she said.
“All he had to do was stop — stop the car, stop resisting,” Giunta said. “He didn’t do any of those things. … It was he who drove those events. It was Leone who set the pace.”
The confrontation took place March 8, 2010. State police were dispatched to a report of a black Pontiac being driven erratically westbound on Route 6 and began chasing Leone near Towanda.
Leone refused to heed the flashing lights and blaring sirens, and continued driving on rims after police popped his tires with spike strips. Eventually, troopers rammed his car off the road and into a ditch along the highway.
Do something more than just comment! Exercise your bill of rights!!! Write the PA state police, the mayor of his city, your congressman, and the Department of Justice.
US attorneys office – they can prosecute
William J. Nealon Federal Building and Courthouse
235 N. Washington Avenue, Suite 311
Scranton, PA 18503
Frank Noonan
Commissioner PA state police
1800 Elmerton Avenue
Harrisburg, PA
Email the governor:
Governor@pa.gov
When you write be respectful, and don’t use foul language.
Justice for Robert Leone on Facebook
NEWS STORIES
Leone jury says no excessive force
Jury clears 5 state troopers of police brutality claims
Robert Leone Brutally Beaten By Pennsylvania State Police: Federal Lawsuit
Pa. man Robert Leone suing state police for alleged brutality during arrest
VIDEOS
Police Brutality Worse than Rodney King – The Robert Leone Story
WETM 18 6 O’Clock News Coverage Robert Leone Case 6/27/12
Justice for robert leone and family
POLICE BRUTALITY- Video of Robert Leone unwarranted beating by State Police
PA Troopers beat Leone to a pulp, then beat him again when he sought help.
