The jury took two hours and 20 minutes to acquit AJ Blake of two charges of assaulting a female on July 29, after two days of conflicting testimony by Greensboro police officers.
A seven-year veteran of the Greensboro Police Department with four years in the Air Force before that, Blake had been terminated from the department following an administrative hearing almost two weeks earlier. He has appealed that decision to interim City Manager Bob Morgan.
A black officer whose mother is Honduran, Blake has become a symbol and an object of controversy. One of 39 black officers suing the police department for racial discrimination and a former member of the gang unit who has corroborated claims by the Latin Kings organization that the department is engaged in anti-Latino prejudice, mistreatment and harassment, Blake has attained the status for some of a whistleblower and an honest cop.
To others, Blake represents a pattern of bad behavior by black officers. The racially diverse jury’s decision overturned a decision by District Court Judge Joseph Turner to convict Blake of assaulting Lorraine Galloway, the girlfriend of Greensboro police Sgt. Craig Myrick, and of assaulting Sandra Sanchez, his girlfriend.
The Rev. Cardes Brown, one of Blake’s supporters, said the officer was terminated solely on the basis of the alleged assault of Galloway, and the police internal investigation did not address the alleged assault against Sanchez. What no one disputes is that Greensboro police officers and their guests were drinking heavily at the Greensboro Police Club on Air Harbor Road on the frigid night of Jan. 16, 2009. The defense introduced as evidence a flier attached to the e-mailed birthday invitation for Officer Mike Caudle that joked “we’ll see how many Jager-bombs the old man can stand.”
There was a board at the club to tally the number Jager-bombs — a drink that mixes a shot of Jagermeister liqueur with a quantity of Red Bull energy drink — each contestant could down. Blake testified that he drank four or five Jager-bombs and two and a half beers. Sanchez, the designated driver, drank half a beer. Galloway said she also drank four to five Jager-bombs. Myrick, her date, acknowledged drinking four. Sgt. Ronald Sizemore, Blake’s supervisor on the gang unit, was too intoxicated to give a statement during the initial police investigation, Cpl. RR Neal testified.
Blake has said that he and Sanchez were the only two people of color who attended the party. Blake said he brought two Latin music CDs, and gave salsa dancing lessons during the evening. When several female officers crowded around Blake, Sanchez got mad. Blake testified that she flirted in front of him to make him jealous. He finally lost his temper when he saw Sanchez flirt with a member of the Guilford County paramedic team – a job to which Sanchez, a county health department employee, aspired. (Later, various witnesses would testify that Sanchez state that Blake had accused her of giving the paramedic oral sex, but it was untrue.) They both now concur that Blake said he told Sanchez that after five years of dating, if she couldn’t trust him she never would.
He took off his promise
ring and told her their relationship was over. Blake followed Sanchez
into the women’s restroom, where they continued to argue.
To
that point, all parties are in agreement, but the events surrounding
Blake and Sanchez’s departure from the police club are a matter of
dispute between the couple and many of the other guests. The jury
apparently found Blake and Sanchez’s testimony more credible.
Later,
in the parking lot, their verbal argument continuing and a crowd
gathering around, Blake admitted to calling Sanchez a “whore.” He
denied calling his girlfriend “a fucking spic,” explaining, “My mother
would kill me if she heard I called someone a spic.” (Officer
Christopher Schultheis testified that Blake used the racial epithet
against Sanchez.) Blake admits to kicking Sanchez’s car door, snapping
his cell phone in two, throwing his police ID down in the parking lot
and telling Myrick: “F**k it.” The reason for tossing his police ID
down and uttering a profanity, Blake said, was his anticipation that
Myrick had come to confront him about his purported assault against
Galloway.
Galloway and Schultheis said they had both stood at
either side of the door watching from separate windows as Blake and
Sanchez left, but only Galloway observed Blake’s alleged assault
against Sanchez.
“He ran and kicked her in the back,” Galloway
said. “It was with some pretty good force. I was surprised. I couldn’t
believe he was doing this. Secondly I couldn’t believe he was doing
this in public with no regard for the consequences.”
Sanchez
testified that she was never kicked or struck in any way by Blake.
Officer Christa Leonard, a crime scene investigator, testified that she
was initially called to the police club to take photographs of
Galloway’s alleged injury, but was later told there might be an
additional assault.
Upon meeting with Sanchez later that
morning, Leonard said she saw no marks on the white coat Sanchez had
worn, nor any markings on her back. Sanchez’s statement that day to
Detective James Schwochow that she had not been assaulted was
consistent with the lack of physical evidence. Sanchez did testify that
she got her heel caught in the wooden walkway and stumbled, but
regained her balance by extending her arms. Galloway and Schultheis
testified that following Blake’s alleged kick to Sanchez’s back,
Galloway opened the door and said, “You’re not going to do that
anymore.” (On this point, Blake concurs.) Galloway testified that Blake
“ran towards me and grabbed me by the throat and shoved me back.” Under
questioning from Assistant District Attorney Howard Neumann, she said
she wasn’t sure if she fell. “I didn’t remember some of that until
recently. I stumbled….
Officer Schultheis assisted me.” For
Schultheis’ part, he recalled that Blake “took his hand and grabbed her
around the neck and shoved her back into the police club. She stumbled
and went down to her knee. I asked her if she was okay.” There was no
dispute about whether Blake touched Galloway, only about the nature of
the contact. Blake testified that he turned and found Galloway about
six inches away from him. He said he used a move known as “creating
distance” that is a standard part of police training. He testified that
he extended his right hand, placed it below Galloway’s throat and above
her chest line and gently pushed her back. Leonard testified that she
saw some “slight redness to the right side of the neck” when she
examined Galloway on the night of the alleged assault. On the second
day of testimony, defense attorney Kenneth Free Jr. showed Leonard a
picture of Galloway from the night of the party, and said, “It appears
she is smiling a little bit?” “Yes,” Leonard said. Detective
Schwochow’s testimony revealed the significant stock the Guilford
County District Attorney’s office placed on Blake’s prosecution.
Schwochow acknowledged that after interviewing Sanchez and searching in
vain for evidence of injury the day after the party, he filed only one
assault charge for Galloway. It would be three weeks before he filed a
second assault charge with a domestic stipulation for Sanchez.
“Is it fair to say you were told to take out that warrant?” Free asked.
“Yes, it is,” Schwochow replied. “Is it fair to say you did not want to charge him?” Free asked.
“It
is,” Schwochow said. “I was advised by my supervisor, Sgt. James
Marshall, that there had been a discussion between my supervisors and
the district attorney’s office.”
Free returned to that
exchange in his closing argument, after reminding the jurors that they
were bound to return a guilty verdict only if they were certain beyond
a reasonable doubt that Blake had perpetrated the alleged assaults.
“I
asked [Schwochow]: ‘Did you want to charge him?’” Free said. “‘No.’
Ordered to. Three weeks later. You could ask, ‘Why?’ But you don’t have
to. That’s not your job. You duty is to let your word speak the
everlasting truth.”
Galloway and Myrick had sat behind the
prosecution table for much of the trial, and were seated in the
courtroom when the verdict was rendered. Galloway, an investigative
instructor at the Justice Academy in Salemburg, had made it clear
during testimony that she did not relish her role. “This has been six
months ago, and I try not to think about this every day,” she said,
“because, to be honest with you, it’s been painful.”
When the
clerk read the two verdicts — not guilty on both counts — Blake barely
allowed himself a smile. Later, in the hallway, he was asked what
impact the verdicts might have on the larger question of racial
discrimination within the department and in its treatment of Latino
community members.
“I think it’s going to reiterate my point stronger,” Blake said, “that there’s a problem in the police department.”
