Burlington Police Department bodycam footage from two incidents appears to show cops knocking unconscious two black men suspected of starting fights downtown. Attorneys filed excessive force lawsuits Thursday against the officers involved.
Burlington police conducted internal investigations of both incidents using out-of-state experts, which resulted in suspension without pay for one of the arresting officers, Chief Brandon del Pozo said. His department also apprised the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s office and the city police commission, he said.
According to the chief, Sgt. Jason Bellavance, a shift supervisor and veteran of the department, faced discipline for his “unnecessary or unreasonable” use of force while investigating a report of a fight at What Ales You, a bar at the corner of St. Paul Street and Main Street, just after midnight on September 9.
The officer’s bodycam footage, provided to Seven Days by the attorneys who filed suit against the department, shows Bellavance exit his patrol car and follow a bar employee up the Main Street sidewalk. The employee points the officer toward a man in a flannel shirt who is arguing with another bar employee in front of JP’s Pub.
The man, then-24-year-old Jérémie Meli, a Congolese immigrant, can be heard saying “You guys started the fight,” to a bar employee who is tapping a finger into Meli’s chest.
A split-second later, Bellavance walks up and shoves Meli from the side. Meli falls toward the building and appears to hit his head against the wall. A thud is audible on the recording. Bellavance grabs Meli’s limp body by the shoulder and drags him away from the wall. Meli’s eyes appear to roll around as he’s being moved.
Meli’s brother, Albin, immediately begins yelling at Bellavance.
“Sir, sir! Are you fucking kidding me?” he can be heard saying.
“Back up,” Bellavance orders the brother away.
“Sir, he’s nonresponsive. Are you fucking kidding me?” Albin says.
Jérémie regains consciousness as Bellavance tells him to “roll over.” Bellavance and two other officers then begin to handcuff Jérémie as he wriggles on his stomach. “Stop resisting,” another officer orders.
Albin can be heard yelling off camera: “That’s my brother! He didn’t do anything!”
One of the other officers asks Jérémie, “How’s your head?” while another, identified in the federal lawsuit as Vincent Ross, tells Jérémie he will “get fucking Tased” if he kicks the officer.
A few minutes later, as the officers pinning Jérémie wait for first responders, Albin can be seen pushing another officer, identified in the civil lawsuit as Cory Campbell, on the shoulder while saying, “I’m sorry to say this, but can you please tell them to stop.”
Campbell and several other officers immediately tackle him.
Campbell is named as a defendant, along with Bellavance, in the civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by attorney Evan Chadwick of the firm Chadwick and Spensley.
Campbell is currently on administrative duty as Vermont State Police investigate the death of 54-year-old Douglas Kilburn, whom Campbell punched multiple times during a March altercation outside the University of Vermont Medical Center. Campbell and a UVM security guard have said that Kilburn punched the officer first, though some of Kilburn’s family members told Seven Days that fractures to his jaw and eye socket led them to believe Campbell hit Kilburn more than was necessary.
The Melis’ lawsuit alleges Campbell and Bellavance violated the Melis’ constitutional protection from excessive police force.
The complaint states that Jérémie suffers lingering effects from a head injury and needs special accommodations as he pursues a medical degree. Albin required a cast for injuries to his thumb, according to the suit.
Charges against both brothers were dropped. Del Pozo said prosecutors dismissed their case against Jérémie because the alleged victim declined to cooperate when the case headed toward trial. The chief did not specify the length of Bellavance’s suspension.
The second suit stems from an incident the night before the encounter with the Meli brothers.
Burlington officer Joseph Corrow came upon a group of people on the sidewalk of the same block of Main Street. Mabior Jok, 34, can be seen in Corrow’s bodycam video in the middle of a circle of people, opposite another man. Corrow would later report in a criminal affidavit that he saw Jok punch the other man.
The video shows Corrow walk directly towards Jok. Just as Jok turns toward the officer, Corrow extends both arms and pulls Jok to the ground. Jok lost consciousness, according to Corrow’s affidavit, and the video shows a small pool of blood forming on the pavement near Jok’s mouth.
Bystanders can be heard on the video uttering “Police brutality,” and “You didn’t have to do that, bro.” A woman walks over to the officer and asks if Jok is breathing.
“He’s fine,” Corrow replies.
Jok regains consciousness and sits up, handcuffed, with blood visible in his mouth. He tells Corrow that he “slammed” him, to which Corrow replies, “Yeah, I slammed you ’cause of what you were doing. Don’t raise your hands at me. It’s really simple.”
In a criminal affidavit supporting charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, Corrow stated that he was trying to grab Jok’s left arm to handcuff him when Jok “began backing up and raising his arms.”
“I was in fear that Jok was going to assault me,” Corrow wrote.
The civil lawsuit on behalf of Jok, filed by Chadwick’s partner, Robb Spensley, claims that Bellavance arrived and interviewed witnesses who said Jok hadn’t punched anyone.
Corrow reported in his affidavit that he knew Jok from previous interactions. Jok had 10 misdemeanor convictions and five felony charges at the time.
In April, the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges against Jok stemming from the encounter with Corrow. The state had sought to exclude the bodycam footage from trial for the disorderly conduct, contending that the crime had been completed before the video begins, and that footage of the arrest would be “extremely prejudicial” to a jury.
Del Pozo said prosecutors dropped the case against Jok because he had accrued more serious felony charges and that his time in jail awaiting trial for those cases would have fulfilled any penalty for disorderly conduct.
Corrow did not face discipline because the internal investigation found that he had intervened in a fight, del Pozo said. The review did find that Corrow should have informed dispatch of the violent incident and requested backup “to maximize the likelihood of a safe outcome for all involved.”
“He was counseled in this regard, this expectation was reiterated to the police union, and it was briefed to trainers and at roll calls,” del Pozo said.
Both civil suits name the city, del Pozo in his official capacity as police chief, and Bellavance as defendants.
Bellavance was previously named in an excessive force suit over a 2011 arrest of a man who was in line at a hot dog stand on New Year’s Eve. Bellavance broke a man’s orbit bone and teeth while forcing him to the ground as he resisted Bellavance’s escort away from the late-night vendor, according to court records. A judge determined Bellavance’s actions were reasonable and dismissed the man’s claims.
Del Pozo planned to host a press conference Friday to discuss the latest allegations.
Earlier this week, while taking questions from Burlington city councilors over his handling of the Kilburn case, del Pozo said he was planning to revisit the department’s 2013 use-of-force policy. He told councilors that departmental training had outpaced its use-of-force policy. He alluded to circumstances in which officers’ actions were not in accordance with current training — but were allowed under current policy.
Del Pozo directed Seven Days’ followup questions about the policy review to deputy chief Jon Murad, who was unable to cite specific deficiencies in the present policy or examples of where it had hindered the ability to discipline officers for inappropriate conduct.
Read the Mabior Jok suit here:
And the Meli brothers’ lawsuit is here:
This story will be updated.
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That first video is a fine example of despicable police conduct on all counts. Even after what was obviously a severe head injury the second female officer comes in and immediately puts her knee into Meli’s spine at the back of his neck and proceeds to lean her weight into it while leveraging the joints in his arm to inflict pain. No concern for the head injury at all! Then, they all start yelling at him to “stop resisting”. Be honest, just tell him to remain perfectly still while you inflict as much pain & damage as you can and you expect him to just lay there and take it. Nobody alive wouldn’t squirm and try to ease the pain under those conditions.
The Burlington PD are criminals. The entire department should be disbanded.
Second video. Play it in slow motion. The kids arms were at his side the whole time.
These video is extremely upsetting. Both of these events, the officers made no attempt at de-escalting without immediately resorting the the use of physical force. These are our guardian angels. These two officers are wannabe thugs. Join the military of you want some action. This is not what protecting the people looks like. It’s even more of a shame that our police force is condoning this type of action and see nothing wrong with it. Even though the PEOPLE see it CLEARLY. Officer Bellavance got paid time off and then desk duty after messing up this med students life. What a shame
Paco DeFrancis: how do you come to the conclusion that “one can obviously tell Sgt. Bellavance barely touches Mr. Meli, who then falls to the ground due to his extraordinary level of alcohol impairment and inability to stand upright”? That is not at all what it looks like to me. It looks like the officer aggressively pushes Mr Meli without prior provocation. He just walked right up to him and shoved him without so much as communicating a warning to him first. Unless I’m missing something, your interpretation is just entirely wrong.
It seems the definition of “excessive force” needs to be clarified for the BPD. I give a lot of respect for anyone in that job, but some people get off on power, and putting them in a uniform is a disaster in the making. The previous commenter was right. This is Burlington VT, not the corrupt city of NYC. For all of our sakes, people, DIAL IT DOWN!
Were those “Heroes” protecting or serving?
Cory Campbell and Brendan Delpozo need to step down immediately from their positions of authority. Because clearly they think “authority” means it’s ok to use horrendous physical force against people. Campbell also clearly has had several involvements with physical altercations on how to stop an incident and needs serious repercussions for his actions. His name is mentioned in several cases and for using excessive force and Delpozo doesn’t see anything wrong with this? Delpozo comes from a large city that is used to dishonest police, police corruption and police cover ups. We here in VT do not like our law enforcement to do justice like this. Douglas Kilburn is my Uncle and we will get justice for him and any other victims that incidents like this have happened to.
This department is a mess full of disrespect, aggression, and violence, Campbell has a history of excessive force, we need civilian oversight and police accountability, and del Pozo needs to step down immediately.
In response Mr. DeFrancis’s comment, it’s certainly foreseeable that Mr. Meli would be intoxicated and unsteady on his feet, and as a result would go down easily if shoved. Which is exactly why you don’t shove him! If Sgt. Bellavance was intent on skipping any verbal interaction of any kind due to a concern about Mr. Meli becoming violent or something like that (and we could debate whether that’s appropriate; spoiler alert – it’s not) then the thing to do is grab him and secure him.
In the first video one can obviously tell Sgt. Bellavance barely touches Mr. Meli, who then falls to the ground due to his extraordinary level of alcohol impairment and inability to stand upright and not because of any of Bellavance’s actions. Shame on Chief del Pozo for disciplining Sgt. Bellevance when clearly no violation occurred.
The arresting officers did nothing wrong. del Pozo needs to focus on preventing the enabling of this type of public drunken belligerence the same way he needs stop enabling opiate use which is become so pervasive in our City.
Sgt. Bellavance’s first interaction with Mr. Meli is absolutely ridiculous. No verbal commands, no attempt to de-escalate, just a shove into the wall that appears to cause Mr. Meli to hit his head and lose consciousness. Surely that is not consistent with BPD’s training or policy, and it’s incredibly dangerous. If a non-officer did the same thing and Mr. Meli died as a result of hitting his head (which has definitely happened), it would probably be charged as voluntary manslaughter, if not murder.