Greenspoon Marder partner intervenes after seeing cop kick driver who had hands in the air
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A Greenspoon Marder partner intervened Wednesday after she saw a police officer forcefully kick a driver who had his hands in the air while standing outside his car.
Deborah Baker-Egozi tells the Daily Business Review she was leaving the courthouse in downtown Miami when she saw an officer screaming obscenities at the driver, who appeared calm and compliant. A passenger was inside the car. At first Baker-Egozi was hesitant to get involved because she feared the officer would target her with his anger.
Then she saw the officer kick the driver so forcefully that “he had to gear up to do it,” Baker-Egozi said. At that point, she began taking photos and offered to represent the driver, according to her Facebook post about the incident.
The driver accepted her offer. “The cop then screamed at me to tell me the kids had only been detained for a routine traffic violation and asked me if I observed them being arrested. I told him that I observed him kicking the driver, and that the criteria for hiring counsel is not an arrest.
“He didn’t know an attorney witnessed his unjustified violence and backed off these poor kids and then started being really nice. He canceled his reinforcements, and by the end was shaking hands being nice to the kids. What if I wasn’t there?”
A Miami police spokeswoman told the Daily Business Review that the officer in Baker-Egozi’s photo was not a member of its force. A Miami-Dade police department spokesman said the officer couldn’t immediately be identified, but if he is one of its officers, there will be a full investigation.
Corrects officer to offer in fourth paragraph at 11:22 a.m.
