A federal jury took about two hours Wednesday to clear a retired Little Rock police lieutenant, David Hudson, of accusations that he used excessive force in punching a man in the face outside a restaurant in October 2011.
Hudson was captured on camera punching Jon "Chris" Erwin, now 45, seven times in rapid succession as he held Erwin by the collar outside Ferneau in Little Rock's Hillcrest neighborhood on the night of Oct. 29, 2011, as bystanders dressed in Halloween costumes gathered around. Hudson is now a Pulaski County Circuit Court bailiff.
The video was viewed thousands of times on social media. It fueled an ongoing national debate about the amount of force law enforcement officers should be allowed to use during various encounters and at what point that force becomes excessive.
Jurors in U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr.'s court heard two days of testimony this week before deliberating on whether Erwin had proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Hudson's closed-fist punches and decision to throw Erwin to the ground constituted an unreasonable use of force.
After hearing about extenuating circumstances, the jury of seven women and four men unanimously decided that the amount of force used was reasonable from Hudson's perspective.
Reggie Koch, one of Erwin's attorneys, told jurors in his closing arguments: "The world's waiting to see if you're going to make them train officers on the right way to do things."
Bill James, one of Hudson's attorneys, countered: "It never looks good when a police officer is hitting someone on video," if that's where the inquiry stops. He said Erwin's attorneys -- Koch, David Williams and Brian Brooks -- "want you to focus on five seconds of tape. In reality, there's a whole lot more going on."
He told jurors: "We're turning into a society of entitlement, where there are no rules and we have a right to get involved in the middle of an arrest. ... Send a message that we're going to let police officers do what is reasonable."
Erwin's face was cut and swollen after the incident, as jurors saw in a photograph. He testified that he got three stitches at a hospital after he was arrested and that he later sought physical therapy for a related sore back. While Koch suggested that Erwin suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, no medical evidence to support that was ever presented.
Misdemeanor charges against Erwin and his friend, Blake Mitchell, who was with him that night along with Erwin's girlfriend and Mitchell's wife, were later dropped by a Pulaski County judge for procedural reasons. Moody didn't allow testimony about the charges.
If the jurors had found in favor of Erwin, they would have been asked to determine whether any compensatory damages were due him for his medical bills and mental anguish. If they awarded any compensatory damages, they would have next been asked to consider punitive damages. No amounts were suggested.
Attorneys said Wednesday that Hudson would have had to personally pay any damages because the city of Little Rock and the company that owned Ferneau, which closed a month after the incident, settled Erwin's claims with them over the weekend, before the trial began. Details of the settlement weren't available Wednesday, and Williams said the settlement wasn't official yet.
Before the trial, Moody had said the city would be liable if the trial determined that Hudson was acting in his capacity as a police officer, but the company could be liable if he was acting as its agent.
Hudson testified that he was acting under the Little Rock Police Department's use of force policy, which includes a "continuum of force," allowing increasingly harsher tactics for increasing amounts of resistance. Stuart Thomas, who retired three years ago but was the chief of police at the time of the incident, testified that officers were allowed to use force, even to the extent of repeated face punches, when necessary and reasonable.
As Hudson emerged from the courthouse Wednesday after the verdict, he told reporters, "I feel vindicated. I've always felt that my actions were proper. I thank the jury, and I thank my legal team."
"Quite honestly," he added, "I'm grateful for the country we have and the kind of judicial system we have."
Erwin said, "It was never about the money. It was about trying to get the word out. ... My whole goal was to remove bad police officers."
Erwin said he didn't change his mind throughout the trial about his or Hudson's actions that night and believes that the testimony and evidence reinforced that he was a victim of excessive force. He complained that jurors got to hear that he was arrested but not that his charges were dismissed.
The merits of the charges, which included resisting arrest, were never adjudicated, but Erwin reiterated after the verdict, "I was definitely not resisting. ... I still, to this day, don't know why I was arrested."
Hudson testified Tuesday that he was sitting outside the restaurant, near the entrance, on a bar stool when a bartender came out and asked for his help removing some unruly people who had crashed a private party in the restaurant's party room.
Hudson testified that he told the group to leave the room, and the four took their time leaving but seemed to be complying. But then, he said, Erwin emerged a short time later from the party room's separate door, approached Hudson and asked repeatedly who wanted his group to leave and why.
Hudson said he maintained his general policy of not revealing who had complained, and Erwin became more agitated and insisted that he had a "right" to know. Hudson said he was forced to arrest him to keep the peace. Hudson said Erwin refused to face a wall and put his hands on it when ordered to do so, then moved toward the uniformed officer and put his hands on the officer as Hudson radioed for backup.
Hudson testified that he wanted to avoid knocking Erwin to the ground to get control of him, so he punched Erwin instead to try to get him to submit to arrest. He pointed out that he didn't know whether the belligerent man had a weapon.
When Erwin continued to resist arrest after the face punches, Hudson said, he had no choice but to knock the large man to the ground, where Erwin continued to squirm with his hands under his stomach until Hudson rolled him over and sat on him to handcuff him.
Some people who saw parts of the scuffle said they worried that Erwin was a victim of police brutality, while others said they worried that an officer was under attack.
A former bouncer who was dressed as John Travolta's character from the movie Saturday Night Fever and was attending a Halloween party at a nearby restaurant said he rushed to form a barrier between the wrestling men and the crowd, fearing that the officer would be assaulted by the crowd before backup arrived.
While Erwin and Mitchell denied having much to drink that night, either at Ferneau or at two earlier stopovers where they acknowledged that they consumed alcohol, workers and people attending the private party testified that the men and the two women appeared intoxicated.
They said that at least one of the women was lifting her dress and "dirty dancing," and one of the women was eating all the wrapped candy off the tables.
A disc jockey hired for the party testified that one of the women threatened to "kick his a" if he didn't play better music, and a bartender testified that when he initially asked the party to leave, Erwin challenged him to "throw my a out."
"At worst, what Mr. Hudson was dealing with was an intoxicated person, which we deny, who was asking questions -- not threatening, not swinging, not charging," Koch argued Wednesday.
A former police officer himself, he called Hudson "one of those old-school cops who doesn't like anybody to threaten his authority," and said the officer could have de-escalated the situation by just standing back and letting Erwin vent or by talking to him in a conversational tone.
Hudson attorney James told jurors that while Erwin may ordinarily be a "nice guy," Hudson didn't know him or his intentions.
"Look," James said, replaying the video. "He's got his hands on Lt. Hudson. What does he act like when he's drunk, if this isn't it? I'm not sure we want to see that."
Metro on 06/15/2017