Saturday, June 07, 2008

Officer Aaron York Accused of Lying about Arrest

Austin, TX

Austin Police Officer Aaron York was suspended indefinitely Friday, in connection with an arrest Officer York made in December 2007. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said York made untrue statements about an arrest in in official government documents.

Officer York responded to a report of a man screaming in the alley off East Cesar Chavez Street on December 14. York says the man was intoxicated. York said when he tried to make the arrest, the man tried to kick him. For that, he filed a charge of resisting arrest.

In the probable cause affidavit and offense report, York stated that the suspect was violent and resisted arrest. But according to the dashboard video recorded in York's patrol car, Chief Acevedo states that there was no struggle and the suspect did not kick York as he claimed.

"One of the officer's supervisors reviewed the tape in this case and read the offense report and saw a discrepancy. What was in the report wasn't on the video," said Assistant Chief David Carter.

York told integrity officers that he did not lie in his report and wrote what he remembered. The officer is quoted in the memo saying the kick must have happened out of view of the camera. His superiors did not find the story credible. York was fired.

"When police can't be trusted and they swear to something that simply didn't happen, that violates everybody's sense of justice," Carter said.

"The officer will have to explain his actions. I don't think it was his intention at all to misrepresent anything, but we're just going to support his appeal process.

Police have asked the county court to decide whether to charge the man with resisting arrest. Officers say while the man did not show resistance during the arrest, he did during transportation to jail.

Officer York is the ninth officer to be fired under Chief Acevedo.

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Good job Chief Acevedo!!

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