Top NOPD Cop Defends Firing Officer

[951-Riverside]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- This city's police superintendent on Thursday defended his decision to fire an officer who was videotaped beating a man in the French Quarter, even though the ex-officer was cleared of criminal charges.

The fired officer, Robert Evangelist, wants to return to his old job with back pay. But Superintendent Warren Riley said during a hearing in Evangelist's appeal that the officer was fired two years ago because he violated department policy.

"It was beyond what was necessary for a person that, in my opinion, did not clearly resist," Riley told reporters outside the hearing room shortly after his testimony.

Frank DeSalvo, Evangelist's attorney, said his client did nothing wrong when he and other officers arrested retired schoolteacher Robert Davis. The arrest was videotaped by an Associated Press Television News crew the night of Oct. 8, 2005, a little more than two months after Hurricane Katrina.

The videotape shows Evangelist kneeing and punching Davis in the torso several times.



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