Mark KaylorWhen he punched a drunk Latino man in the face and shoulders seven times, it was an appropriate use of force, former Red Bank police officer Mark Kaylor told jurors Wednesday.
Minutes earlier that day in 2014, Kaylor had pulled Candido Medina-Resendiz, 26, and a friend over for what appeared to be drunken driving along Dayton Boulevard on April 13, 2014. Quickly realizing Medina-Resendiz's friend was so drunk he had wet his pants, Kaylor had the man perform a field sobriety test and then started to arrest him.
From his patrol car, where he was placing the driver into custody, Kaylor could see backup officers struggling on the ground with Medina-Resendiz. He joined the fray when it looked like Medina-Resendiz was biting one of the officers, he testified in Hamilton County Criminal Court.
Stun gun shots and baton strikes hadn't worked on Medina-Resendiz, who was also drunk that night, Kaylor said. So he resorted to hard techniques: seven punches.
"You feel that level of force was appropriate?" his attorney, Lee Davis, asked on the second day of Kaylor's trial.
"Yes, sir," Kaylor said. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have been in custody. I had a duty to act, as an officer."
That's the big question jurors will have to answer for themselves: Whether Kaylor, who faces charges of aggravated assault and official misconduct, was behaving reasonably during the stop. They will start deliberating today after attorneys present their closing arguments.
Prosecutors said those seven punches weren't appropriate. Through a combination of officers and eyewitnesses, Kevin Brown and Andrew Coyle have argued that Kaylor could have relied on less violent methods to get Medina-Resendiz into custody. Medina-Resendiz, who needed surgery to repair a broken eye socket from the encounter, still has a titanium plate to hold up a muscle in his face, Coyle said.
Prosecutor Brown called Jerry Rogers, a detective with the Bradley County Sheriff's Office and a longtime instructor with the Cleveland State Police Training Academy, to discuss recommended uses of force.
"We teach to avoid head strikes," Rogers said, "that head strikes should be reserved when the officer is defending themselves, when the officer feels that he or she is in danger."
After walking through the dashcam footage of the arrest, Brown posed a question: "Did this officer have other options than closed fist strikes to the face?"
"Yes," Rogers agreed.
Attorney Davis also walked through the footage, getting Rogers to explain frame by frame the likely rationale behind each one of Kaylor's responses. Head strikes aren't prohibited, Davis stressed.
Since Tuesday, he has insinuated that Medina-Resendiz, who speaks Spanish and needed a translator Tuesday, knew his arrest would lead officers to his immigration violations. He pleaded guilty to domestic violence in June 2013, spent 20 days in custody, and was ordered to leave the country - unless he wanted to spend more time in jail, Davis said.
Davis stressed Wednesday that Kaylor only used head strikes because nothing else was working on Medina-Resendiz, who had disobeyed verbal commands to stop resisting.
To this effect, he called Skip Vaughn, a 36-year-veteran of the Chattanooga Police Department. Davis said he asked Vaughn to review the investigative file and dashcam footage, and explain the potential danger Red Bank officers faced that night. His expert opinion?
Kaylor acted appropriately "under the totality of the circumstances," Vaughn said.
That didn't totally satisfy prosecutors, who questioned Kaylor directly about his behavior on the stand. The former officer claimed Medina-Resendiz also tried to bite him.
"That video doesn't show him trying to bite you, does it?" Brown asked. "You never said to the other officers, 'He's trying to bite me.'"
Kaylor replied that dashcam footage didn't show his exact perception of the crime and that he had to act as quickly as he could in a rapidly escalating situation.
Because the baton strikes, direct stun gun shots, and pressure-point grabs hadn't worked, Kaylor said he started to hit Medina-Resendiz.
"After a third hit, you didn't assess the situation," Brown said.
"He was still resisting," Kaylor said.
"After a fourth hit, you didn't assess the situation," Brown said.
"He was still resisting," Kaylor said.
"After the fifth, sixth and seventh hit, you didn't assess the situation," Brown said.
Closing arguments will take today in Judge Tom Greenholtz's courtroom after he reads jurors their charge instructions.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.