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.