|
Former police officer charged in Rayshard Brooks death released from jail, Brooks woulda got 10 charges
[Jpost] The former Atlanta police officer who was charged in the June 12 death of Rayshard Brooks, touching off days of protests, has been released from jail, local television station WSBTV reported.A Georgia County judge on Tuesday set bond for the former officer, Garrett Rolfe, 27, at $500,000 and added numerous conditions including that he has to wear an ankle monitor and obey a curfew.
[Hot Air] At some point early this morning, former Atlanta Police Officer Garret Rolfe after posting a half-million-dollar bond. Rolfe is still facing numerous charges in the death of Rayshard Brooks and the release came despite to keep him locked up. The terms of his release are quite restrictive and he won’t be able to leave town. But at the same time, more details are emerging from the investigation into what precisely happened on June 12th when Brooks was shot. One Atlanta Police Department homicide detective who has been assigned to the case has investigated the evidence extensively and this week he filed a court brief on behalf of the defense. In it, Detective Al Hogan claimed in the filing that, had Brooks survived the encounter, he would have charged him with ten different criminal charges. This is going to complicate the District Attorney’s case against Rolfe even further, and it was pretty weak tea to being with. The prosecution is seeking to portray Brooks as some sort of happy-go-lucky drunk who just happened to fall asleep in the Wendy’s drive-through and was then gunned down by racist cops. But both the video evidence and the results of this investigation tell a very different tale. I touched on this aspect of the case in an earlier article I wrote about what happens when the police become fed up with being used as scapegoats to appease an angry mob. It’s clear that Brooks instigated and then severely escalated the violence at a point where the cops were ready to calmly and safely take him in on a DUI charge. Physically assaulting the police and then stealing a Taser and firing it at them brought the confrontation to a crisis point, particularly when Georgia law defines a Taser as a potentially lethal weapon. The only moment where the prosecution should be able to hang its hat on some sort of charge against Rolfe comes with the decision to shoot him in the back while he’s fleeing. Rolfe and the other officers would need to be able to convince a jury that allowing Brooks to escape at that point would pose a reasonable risk of danger to either the public or other officers. Given that the Taser was presumably discharged at that point and Brooks didn’t have any other weapons on him, that might be a stretch. But felony murder? I’m still gobsmacked that the DA could have been so panicked over the potential reaction in the streets to the shooting that he would overreact to such a vast degree. Frankly, I don’t know if they’ll be able to get a conviction against Rolfe for anything at this point, nor am I completely convinced that they should be able to. Related: Garrett Rolfe: 2020-06-22 70 Atlanta Cops Have Resigned After Officer Rolfe Charged W/Felony Murder Garrett Rolfe: 2020-06-20 Officer charged with murder for shooting Rayshard Brooks dead is DENIED bond Garrett Rolfe: 2020-06-20 Stepmother Of Police Officer Charged In Rayshard Brooks Shooting Fired Posted by: trailing wife 2020-07-02 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=575871 |