Jurors hear evidence against Red Bank officer indicted in beating case

Mark Kaylor
Mark Kaylor

The prosecutor wanted to learn more about the purple rings and bruises on Candido Medina-Resendiz's face. So he slid a picture of the 26-year-old's mugshot underneath the projector Tuesday, the photo authorities took shortly after Medina-Resendiz was beaten during a violent arrest by then-Red Bank police officer Mark Kaylor in April 2014.

photo Mark Kaylor
photo Candido Medina-Resendiz

"What is this around your right eye?" Kevin Brown asked, and pointed to a large, red, angry splotch.

An interpreter leaned over, repeated the question to Medina-Resendiz in Spanish, and turned back to Brown. "That's where they rubbed my face on the ground," she said.

"What is wrong with your left eye?" Brown asked, and pointed to a swollen eye socket.

"That's when they hit me and they punched me," the translator said.

"Do you know how many times you were hit in the left eye?" Brown asked.

"I don't really know," Medina-Resendiz said through the translator, "I did not count them, but I would say several times."

That was the tip of the iceberg for jurors in the Kaylor trial, taking place this week after District Attorney General Neal Pinkston secured an indictment for the officer in March 2015. By the end of the week, jurors must decide whether Kaylor, who resigned after the indictment, is guilty of aggravated assault and official misconduct. A third original charge, reckless endangerment, was dropped Tuesday, said Lee Davis, his attorney.

For their first witness, prosecutors called Medina-Resendiz, the victim, to the stand. Medina-Resendiz said he was drunk on April 13, 2014, when he and another friend were pulled over in a Save-A-Lot parking lot on Dayton Boulevard around 3 a.m. After a night of dancing and drinking at a local nightclub, they were trying to get home, he said. And because he was too drunk to drive, Medina-Resendiz had asked his friend to take the wheel.

During the traffic stop, though, Kaylor noticed that Medina-Resendiz's friend was struggling to pass a field sobriety test. Davis said Kaylor was about to take the friend into custody, but the driver briefly resisted, forcing the officer to bring him down to the ground to regain control. As Kaylor and the driver got back up, video of the incident showed Medina-Resendiz outside of the vehicle as back-up officers began to arrive on scene.

Through his interpreter, Medina-Resendiz said officers pulled him out of his car and used a stun gun on him. During his opening statements to jurors, though, Davis told jurors Kaylor was the only officer charged - even though he never fired the stun gun.

"He hits him seven times," Davis said of Kaylor. "And I ask you to watch what happens immediately after that: They take him into custody. It's not pretty. It's not nice. But it's effective and it's perfectly legal."

Davis said alcohol could have affected Medina-Resendiz's judgment that night and suggested that Medina-Resendiz "[knew] his resisting [was] very different from most people's arrest.

"Because when he gets under custody in Red Bank, his status as [a] multiple offender for getting deported from his country is going to be discovered."

Davis said Medina-Resendiz pleaded guilty to domestic assault in Red Bank in June 2013, spent 20 days in custody, and was deported back to Mexico because he wasn't a U.S. citizen and now had a conviction. Davis said Medina-Resendiz was warned that if he did come back, he would have to serve the rest of his full sentence - 11 months and 29 days - and spend two years in federal custody.

Ultimately, Davis said, Medina-Resendiz made three illegal entries back into the United States. And when he resisted that night, one of Medina-Resendiz's hands was in cuffs - not both, Davis said. That presented a predicament for officers who didn't know whether Medina-Resendiz was armed (he was not).

Had that man had a weapon, would you be in fear of your life?" Davis asked Jeremy Waters, another Red Bank officer who was involved in Medina-Resendiz's arrest.

"Absolutely," Waters said.

"Had anyone checked him yet?" Davis asked.

"No," Waters said.

The trial continues today at 9 a.m. in Judge Tom Greenholtz's courtroom.

Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow on Twitter @zackpeterson918.

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