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| Flickr/ photographer padawan *(xava du) |
Stephanie Barry
MassLive
SPRINGFIELD – The amateur videographer with the colorful vocabulary who memorialized the alleged 2009 police beating of Melvin Jones III during a traffic stop may be charged with illegal wiretapping.
One of four police officers disciplined for the incident on Nov. 27, 2009, Michael Sedergren, has filed an application for a criminal complaint against videographer Tyrisha Greene. Sedergren, who was suspended for 45 days, claims it was illegal for Greene to videotape him without his consent.
Greene made a 20-minute film that included Jones, who is black, being struck repeatedly by a white officer with a flashlight while a group of other white officers stood by without intervening. The video also included an expletive-filled commentary by Greene, 29, who sounded alarmed by the scene that unfolded on Rifle Street.
Police reports were that Jones, who had a criminal record, grabbed one of the officers’ guns as they tried to arrest him. Jones disputed this and a Hampden County grand jury rejected allegations that Jones behaved aggressively toward police. Medical records show bones all over his face were broken and he was partially blinded in one eye.
The officer at the center of the controversy is now-retired patrolman Jeffrey M. Asher, a lightning rod when he was on the police force with a past history of allegations of police brutality.
Asher was fired from the police force a day after he received a disability pension from the state. He also faces criminal charges in Chicopee District Court; his trial is pending.
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