HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A federal prosecutor said Friday that he plans to pursue a third trial of an Alabama police officer accused of using excessive force on an Indian man if a judge doesn’t acquit him.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Posey said he told U.S. District Judge Madeline Haikala during a phone conference that prosecutors would pursue another trial of Madison police officer Eric Parker if she doesn’t grant the motion for acquittal filed by Parker’s attorney Robert Tuten.
Parker was charged with violating the rights of 58-year-old Sureshbhai Patel during an encounter in February. Parker knocked Patel to the ground while investigating a suspicious-person complaint.
Patel has said through an interpreter that he doesn’t speak English. He came to the United States to live with his son in suburban Huntsville and said he had been in the country only a few days at the time of the confrontation.
Chirag Patel helps his father, Sureshbhai Patel, out of the car as they arrive outside the federal courthouse before start of a trial against Madison, Ala., police Officer Eric Sloan Parker on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015, in Huntsville, Ala.Parker testified that Patel aroused suspicion by trying to pull away from him during the confrontation.