Transcript Shows Officer Used Racial Slur In Beating

By Matthew Campbell

Story Updated: Oct 16, 2010 at 3:19 AM EDT

A transcript of an alleged police beating caught on camera reveal at least one person used the n-word when referring to Melvin Jones III. Jones' attorney alleges the person uttering the word was a Springfield Police officer.

On the night of the beating, police allege Jones was resisting arrest. The transcript shows an officer yelling, "put your arms behind you, you f--kin' n---er!"

That was the only time the transcript shows an officer using the racial slur.

Accusations of Jones resisting are also documented. At one point, the witnesses who recorded the event says, "look--he trying to run."

The transcript, created by Angelsea Critical Evidence, show officers repeatedly told Jones to cooperate.

Several times, officers are recorded saying, "Hold your arms under, arms down," and "put your arms down."

After the incident, police have maintained they used excessive force because they felt threatened. The transcript details, on at least one occasion, police did reference the possibility that Jones had a gun.

"Does he have a gun in this car," one officer asks.
"What's he got in that car," asks another officer.

The beating on tape continued for several minutes. When another siren sounds, an officer is quoted as saying, "believe me, enough. Enough."

Even with the earlier slur documented, a clerk magistrate would not add a civil rights violation to Asher's charges, possibly because the transcript could never identify which officer said it.

Jones' lawyer, Jared Olanoff, says he may appeal the decision.

Surveillance Video Leads to Exoneration

Darryl Daniels of Springfield grateful murder charge against him dropped, despite time served in jail, lawyer says

Buffy Spencer

March 24, 2010, 4:00PM

SPRINGFIELD – The man who saw a murder charge against him dropped on the eve of trial is not bitter or angry that he spent nearly two years in jail waiting for the case to be heard, said his lawyer.

Instead, Darryl J. Daniels is relieved that the charge that could have landed him in prison for life was dropped, said his lawyer, David A. Hodge.

Daniels’ time in the Hampden County Correctional Center since his July 21, 2008, arrest on the June 16, 2008, murder will be credited to a four-year sentence he received on an unrelated drug and gun case.

Hodge said he had expert testimony ready to present at the trial to prove that the person depicted on a store security videotape near the site of Jamile R. Guest’s fatal shooting was at least 6 feet tall, while Daniels is about 5 feet, 5½ inches tall.

“What we tried to impress upon the prosecutor’s office fairly early on was that the surveillance video didn’t support that it was him,” Hodge said.

Hodge said that leading up to the trial he had secured the services of some experts in the field of video who could show by various measurements that the person depicted at the murder scene was substantially taller than Daniels.

Guest was gunned down at 2:15 a.m. as he exited the Honeyland Farms convenience store at 806 Main St.

Daniels’ trial was set to begin on Wednesday in Hampden Superior Court, but Assistant District Attorney James C. Orenstein on Tuesday gave a document to Judge Constance M. Sweeney saying the prosecution will be dropped.

In an unrelated case, Daniels, 24, of Springfield, had pleaded guilty in early 2009 to charges from a 2006 case involving his arrest when police responded to a report of shots fired outside a Lil’ Wayne concert at the Hippodrome nightclub.

Daniels was out on bail while awaiting resolution of the Hippodrome case when the shooting occurred.

Hodge said that the public portrayal of Daniels was that he was out on bail on one crime, shot a man to death, and then was off gambling. Daniels was arrested at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.