Feds to Probe Police Brutality Charge

Feds to Probe Police Brutality Charge
February 21, 2008 - 2:34am
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - Police chief Henry Whitehorn said Wednesday the district attorney and the Justice Department will investigate the case of a woman who is seen in a police department video lying in a pool of blood in an interrogation room. Angela Garbarino, 42, said she was beaten after her Nov. 17 arrest on a drunk driving charge.

Wiley Willis, the the police officer who was fired Feb. 5 in connection with the case, said through his attorney that Garbarino fell.

Excerpts from a police video tape show Garbarino struggling with an officer in the interrogation room. But the camera was turned off for a time. When it was turned back on, Garbarino is seen on the floor in a pool of blood.

"I had an opportunity to view the tape. I was outraged at what I observed," Whitehorn said at a news conference at police headquarters. "I immediately ordered an internal affairs investigation. That investigation determined that numerous policy violations had occurred."

Garbarino said Willis, 30, tried to force her to take a breath test against her will and that he beat her after turning off the camera.

Willis' lawyer, Eron Brainard, was not immediately available for comment when called Wednesday by The Associated Press. He told The (Shreveport) Times that Willis did not beat Garbarino.

"After her refusal to take the breath test, officer Willis turned off and saved the videotape in accordance with normal practice," Brainard said in a story published Wednesday. "The suspect again tried to leave the room. In the process of (Willis) stopping her, she fell and injured herself."

Paramedics took her to LSU Hospital in Shreveport, where she was treated for a broken nose, a fractured cheek bone and bruises on various parts of her body. Two of her teeth were knocked out.

Garbarino had been taken into custody for DWI testing after someone saw her crash her vehicle into other cars in a casino parking garage and a light pole on a city street, according to police.

Whitehorn said it is police policy for an officer to turn off the videotape of a sobriety test when testing is over and the officer is preparing to book the offender.

Policy will now be changed to where two police officers are in the room at all times, authorities said.