JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — UPDATE: Jacksonville sheriff says portion of viral video showing use of force was intentionally altered
A viral video is now being investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, after it shows officers slamming Le’keian Woods to the ground while handcuffed.
Action News Jax has been following this developing story since Saturday.
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“The video speaks for itself,” Isaiah Rumlin said “How can someone be handcuffed and brutally beaten at the hands of those who supposed to be protecting us?” Rumlin is the President for the NAACP Jacksonville chapter.
Action News Jax obtained the police report for the arrest and then requested the concise history for each officer involved. It’s important to note, we do not have their full files yet, so we do not have all the incident details at this time.
The three officers who arrested Woods are Hunter Sullivan, Robert Bias, and Beau Daigle.
Officer Hunter Sullivan has five incidents listed in his file. One is listed as an “in-house complaint.” He was cleared of any wrongdoing in the other four incidents.
Action News Jax, Meghan Moriarty, found a civil suit involving Sullivan that matched the date of the in-house complaint. It accuses the officer of assault.
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In digging through our archives, we found an Action News Jax report from 2020, where two officers were suspended for a fight with a woman outside a downtown Jacksonville bar. Surveillance video from the November 2019 night captured the encounter. In it, you can see a woman being beaten by two men and knocked to the ground. The two men in the video are Detective Dennis Sullivan and his son Officer Hunter Sullivan—the man now being investigated in the bloody arrest.
In a civil suit, the woman claims the Sullivans were making “derogatory, inflammatory, hostile, and threatening remarks” towards her and a friend.
“I got up and walked towards him, I was like ‘yo, just leave us alone,” she told investigators, a report says.
Related Story: Two JSO officers suspended after bar fight
The Sullivans claim they felt she was about to assault them. The State Attorney’s Office agreed with the Sullivans, saying the video supported they were acting in self-defense, and that the father and son did not commit a crime. The case was dismissed.
Hunter Sullivan was suspended for 15 days and given a ‘written reprimand’ by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office due to the incident.
Officer Robert Bias has nine incidents in his file. Five are citizen complaints. Two were found to be legitimate or substantiated by JSO.
Related Story: JSO investigating arrest amidst allegations of police brutality, according to family
In 2013, Bias was accused of failing to conform to work standards and he received ‘formal counseling’ as a result.
In 2015, he was accused of the same thing and again received formal counseling. Moriarty got her hands on the incident report associated with that claim.
The report said Officer Bias and another officer were conducting a traffic stop. The woman was standing nearby on the sidewalk in front of a store, interrupting as they were conducting their investigation. The report said “there are ‘no loitering signs clearly posted on the front of the store and I [Bias] asked the suspect to stop interrupting the officers.” Officers asked for her identification several times, she wouldn’t provide it. She was told she would be arrested if she refused to identify herself. She told officers “don’t put your hands on me.” The woman began resisting the arrest. The report said one sergeant delivered “a knee strike to the suspect’s left outer leg and I [Bias] delivered one to her right outer leg in an attempt to overcome her resistance.”
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Bias was not found guilty of a crime in this case and charges were not pressed. But, again, he did receive formal counseling as a result.
Another complaint from 2015 alleges “unnecessary force.” He was exonerated in that case.
Officer Beau Daigle had no citizen complaints or reprimands in his file. He was previously recognized as ‘detective of the month.’
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