Prosecutors moved Wednesday to dismiss criminal charges against Mark Kaylor, the former Red Bank police officer who was accused of using excessive force in April 2014.
District Attorney General Neal Pinkston said video footage of Kaylor punching Candido Medina-Resendiz, 26, in the face and shoulders seven times on April 13, 2014, was deeply disturbing. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe led to Kaylor's indictment and resignation. Prosecutors then spent three days arguing to jurors that Kaylor could have reassessed the situation or used less-violent means to arrest Medina-Resendiz.
But Kaylor, who was acquitted Friday of aggravated assault by a hung jury, will not be getting a new trial. Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz dismissed the charges after Pinkston announced he would not pursue a retrial.
"There's nothing new to present," Pinkston's spokeswoman, Melydia Clewell, said Wednesday. "We will not waste taxpayer money trying to affect a different outcome. The jury overwhelmingly chose not to convict Mr. Kaylor and we respect that decision."
Greenholtz declared a mistrial Friday afternoon after jurors worked for 11 hours but remained "hopelessly deadlocked" about whether to convict Kaylor, 40, of a lesser charge. That raised speculation about whether prosecutors would attempt to retry Kaylor for reckless aggravated assault, a class D felony that carries a less severe punishment than his indicted charge.
Part of the dismissal involved sentencing constraints, Clewell said. Without a prior record, Kaylor would likely be known as a "Range I" offender, requiring that he be considered for alternative sentencing. "Therefore, someone like Kaylor, if he had been convicted, would likely been given probation," Clewell said.
Kaylor's defense attorney, Lee Davis, praised the decision, saying he also respected Pinkston's decision and the jury's initial finding. "I don't believe it would reach a different result. I believe it would be an acquittal," he said.
But the decision roiled local activists, a handful of whom sat through the entire trial.
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, of Concerned Citizens for Justice, said several organizers began calling Pinkston's office Wednesday morning when the news broke. They often were directed to leave a voicemail, she said, but one organizer who spoke with a person heard the message that prosecutors believed retrying Kaylor was a waste of taxpayer dollars. Henderson, though, questioned whether it was a waste "to hold police accountable for terrorizing taxpayers."
Henderson said the county doesn't have a reason not to spend taxpayer money - officials already spend lots of taxpayer dollars on budgets that prioritize policing minority, working-class communities.
"I would encourage Hamilton County to imagine any other scenario where a person is assaulted to the point of losing the ability to see in one of their eyes," Henderson said of Medina-Resendiz, who needed a titanium platform to support his fractured eye socket, according to prosecutors.
"I can't think of any other incident where a person isn't held accountable in the court system," Henderson said. "In fact, I would ask people to give critical thought to the Kaylor case versus what's happening with the gang injunction."
Designed to give law enforcement another tool to make streets safer, the "gang injunction" would prohibit 31 accused gang members, nearly all black, from associating with each other in a small section of the East Lake Courts development. Pinkston announced the plan in late September, but it still needs approval from Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman before it goes into effect. The next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30.
As for Kaylor, his future as a police officer remains unclear. On Wednesday, Red Bank police Chief Tim Christol said he didn't know whether Kaylor had active status to serve again.
"I understand the case has been dismissed," Christol said. "As of right now, we don't have any vacancies available and he [Kaylor] has not currently applied with us."
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.