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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Bellavance, a name to remember.. I’ll have to awkwardly cross to the other side of the street when I see this guy coming towards me. BPD, please fire this meathead already. Police officers need to be held to a higher standard than the citizens they protect. They can not be hypocritical and need to held accountable for their actions. Bellavance’s hot headed display does not make me feel safe. For once I don’t need to know the whole side of the story. Visual evidence shows.. Bellavance is in the wrong. BPD, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
I hope those body cams aren’t the only videos. With all those people standing around, there must be footage from different angles.
Does police dept screen applicants for anger issues, PTSD, background of violence?
Ted Cohen check your logic. Would you tell the women in your life if they don’t want to get sexually assaulted they shouldn’t go out alone at night? You are putting the blame on the victim and not the aggressor.
Last I checked the crime for being an asshole isn’t getting assaulted and knocked unconscious by a stranger with a badge.
Seems pretty simple.
Like I said in a different post about Campbell having anger issues he’s involved in another altercation which shows he does. I got a lot of dislikes on that post but this shows that a lot of them have issues. Del Pozo and the rest of them should go back to the gutter they came from.
BPD used to have a good police department but they have gone down hill for the most part..
I cant stand Burlington police there is so many cases were race plays a part in the way they handle things i think they suck and need to step off there high horses
If you don’t want to get shoved by a cop, don’t get drunk and behave like an asshole.
Seems pretty simple.
Every cop critic has a big mouth – until he or she needs a cop for protection from a drunken loser.
Chief del Pozo’s problem is he can’t stop apologizing – because he’s impotent.
If he would declare that cops are paid to protect the innocent and will do so at all cost, he’d save himself a lot of this third-party socialistic handwringing.
But he’s afraid of the critics – who critique cops until they need help from predators.
And it shows. He doesn’t know how to handle spineless criticism because he’s afraid of being accused by Burlington’s welfare class – which, pathetically, runs this city – of insensitivity.
Burlington needs a ballsy police chief before it loses all semblance of order.
I don’t think anyone should step down, but I don’t think Paco DeFrancis is right either. National police policies have become part of local police procedures: hit to injure, shoot to kill, get them on the ground, etc. Militarization of the police force has been happening for a decade. Only now are towns reconsidering police policies that lead to these outcomes. The police were called about a fight. They arrived ready to subdue and cart away the troublesome parties. They shouldn’t have to injure people lying on the ground. They may have been told to be rough, but this is not how it should work. The police are here to serve the people, and when they address a bar fight, they can expect intoxication. I think if the Dozen Extra Police in this video had stayed in their cars, or on the fringes, it wouldn’t look so much like a fascist over-reaction to a customer/bouncer clash. We should see only a few police – the others (if nothing else is happening in town) could stay by their cars unless they see trouble. [Also – was this the only bodycam available? If so, why?] My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that a bar like this (it has a reputation) could have someone there, or nearby. Why did the bouncer bounce this person? The article tells nothing about the initial incident. All we know is that the police wanted to have a show of force. In Vermont, it looks like way too much force. It is the job of the police to cool things down.
PS to Paco – the Chief is not enabling opiate use. Where on earth did that come from?
PS to Seven Days – why does it say “two black men” when it could say “two men”?
Important to remember that the Chief and Mayor, who have full control over every police camera, love to claim that they are on the side of transparency but they only released these horrific videos after a lawsuit was going to release them anyway.
Take your own videos since you cant trust the BPD or administration to engage in honesty, transparency, or consistency around policing and body cameras.
Assault first, ask questions later.
Guilty until proven innocent.
One shove and he’s knocked unconscious.
Another strike on our police’s conscience .
If they had one.
Better hide the footage.
Better if we knock them to the ground.
Excessive force is so euphoric.
You should really give it a try.
Who cares if some folk get broken.
We police are duty bound.
To take an eye for an eye.
And leave us all blind.
Sgt. B barely touched him, he was obviously extremely drunk, which is why he was belligerent and resisting in the first place, and clearly the reason that he fell. It’s very easy to criticize those who do the highly stressful and impossibly difficult job of policing our city and keeping us safe from unsavory types like these hardly blameless angels. Jok: 5 felonies and 10 misdemeanors… really? The real problem downtown lies with excessive alcohol consumption, not excessive force.