FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – On Friday, June 6th, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony spoke at a news conference where he blasted the State Attorney’s Office for charging three corrections deputies who are accused of battering a female they booked into jail in 2022.
During the news conference Tony not only reinstated the three corrections deputies but told reporters that they never should have been charged and that the woman they’re accused of beating attacked and injured them, the Miami Herald reported.
“So, we’re moving forward from an internal-affairs standpoint. Our investigation has been completed. All three deputies will be reinstated to full capacity, and they’ve been either exonerated of these false allegations or it’s been unfounded,” Tony said. Late ron in the investigation, Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) Sgt. Zakiyya Polk, Deputy Cleopatra Johnnie, and Deputy Denia Walker surrendered on aggravated battery charges stemming from an October 4, 2022, incident involving a woman being booked into jail on a charge of driving under the influence.
Tony called out Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor’s Office for pursuing charges against the deputies yet declining to charge in many cases against deputies and other public employees whom the sheriff’s office recommends for prosecution. When referring to Polk, Johnnie, and Walker as “the select three,” Tony questioned Pryor’s office for pursuing them while ignoring other public corruption leads from the sheriff’s office.
“This is most certainly a miscarriage of justice and exhibits symptoms of public corruption in itself,” Tony said. He said that in his two terms as sheriff, he has taken deputy misconduct so seriously that he has fired 141 staff and that he holds his deputies to strict standards when it comes to using force.
The arrest warrants state that the woman, 38-year-old Samantha Caputo, became argumentative when the deputies told her to remove her bra as she was changing from her clothes into her jail uniform. The warrant states that Polk pushed Caputo and that Johnnie and Walker punched and kicked the woman several times.
Walker and Polk also deployed chemical agents on Caputo, and Polk used her Taser, according to the arrest warrant.
The warrant stated that after the physical altercation, Caputo had a hematoma under her right eye, bruises, and a scar from the Taser prongs. She was treated in-house by the jail medical staff and then hospitalized days later because the Taser wound became infected.
At the news conference, Tony stressed that security camera footage shows otherwise. He said that the footage shows the deputies using an appropriate amount of force to control Caputo’s behavior. He said that Caputo “struck, scratched, and bit” one of the deputies, puncturing skin and fracturing her finger.
“The video is crystal clear that [the deputies] had demonstrated only the level of force necessary to get this individual back into compliance,” Tony said. “Our standard is reasonable, necessary force in proportion to the threat to that which we face.”
Pryor said that his office charged the deputies three years later because prosecutors didn’t begin even looking at the case until Caputo’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer. Public Corruption Unit prosecutors then viewed the security camera footage and decided to charge the three deputies. Each deputy faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the second-degree felony charge.
The Public Corruption Unit prosecutors also dropped the battery charge against Caputo, court documents stated. Tony said he was outraged the charge against Caputo was dropped. “You don’t get a free pass to strike, injure, or harm any of my G—–n deputies in this agency. None of them!” he said.
