KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A grand jury has indicted two Kansas City police officers on felony charges alleging they used excessive force while arresting a Black transgender woman last year.
Officers Matthew G. Brummett and Charles Prichard are charged with “knowingly causing physical injury” to Breona, or “Briya,” Hill as she was handcuffed, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said July 24.
The officers were indicted on a misdemeanor assault charge in May, based largely on a video of the arrest.
Prosecutors said two new witnesses came forward after that indictment, and the grand jury found the officers slammed Hill’s face into the sidewalk and kneed her several times while she was handcuffed.
Brad Lemon, president of the Kansas City Fraternal Order of Police, said July 24 the union stands by the officers. Lemon said he doesn’t believe new evidence was found and the new charges were “another example of political prosecution and abuse of power by the Jackson County Prosecutor who is attempting to resurrect a failing career on the backs of the good men and woman of the KCPD.”
The man who filmed the arrest, Roderick Reed, was convicted of violating a city ordinance for refusing police orders to stop filming. He was later pardoned by Mayor Quinton Lucas.
