Video of incident and the police report are posted below. The police report provides more details about this incident.
The fight against domestic violence in Mississippi suffered a blow this week as a simple assault domestic violence charge was dismissed against former JPD Deputy Chief Brady Hightower. Ridgeland police arrested Hightower in January in a bank parking lot as he (allegedly) assaulted a female.
The victim refused to testify in court and exercised her Fifth Amendment rights. The victim also refused to affirm a written statement she gave police when Hightower was arrested. Ridgeland Municipal Court Judge Bob Camp dismissed the charges upon a request to do so by Hightower attorney Rocky Wilkins.
JJ obtained a copy of the video through a public records request. The video posted below consists of video recordings taken from three different security cameras.
:21 Hightower chases victim across the parking lot.
1:32 A customer pulls up but immediately backs out and leaves. Doesn't want any part of this.
2:27 Ridgeland PD arrive
3:07. Different camera. Victim runs from Hightower.
3:33 He grabs her. They scuffle right in front of the camera. He is in JPD uniform.
4:40 Different angle of customer pulling into drive-thru but immediately leaving.
7:02 Different camera. Hightower grabs victim and continues to wrestle with her. It appears that he puts her in a headlock or chokehold at one point although his back is to the camera.
19 comments:
They musta kissed and made up.
Both should be charged with court cost.
Both are a couple of flakes.
#HightowerISJackson
What Sarah said.
"petty punk-ass little thuggery".
He obviously forgot what jurisdiction he was in at the time. Should have stayed in Jacktown with those antics. Silly rabbit!
Must have thought they were in ward three.
Did anyone expect her to testify against a cop, in this small town? Who would protect her after the trial ended? When she gets pulled over by his friends in JPD every time she leaves the house?
RIDGELAND PD did their job. Did its court system, to include the prosecutor and judge, do theirs? Don't know the legal effect of victim backing down on prosecution of the assailant, but it appears there was a lot of evidence in the police reports and the videotapes.
He was in his JPD uniform and patrol car? Ridgeland Citizens should have thrown bottles, sticks, and bricks at him for crossing the boundary....
#JiltedTHUGIntimidationMATTERS
5:51, if you are going to quote the esteemed Mr. Stokes, please be accurate. It's "thro rauks, steeks an boddles...."
Excuse me, but whether the victim testifies or not shouldn't matter.
As we can see, there is plenty of evidence without her testimony.
If Mississippi is a State that requires the victim to press charges , then we need to know that and demand a leap into the legal present!
Where is the venom for Judge Bob Camp and the Ridgeland prosecutor that so many of you have available for Judge Green and RSS?
Women who are the victims of domestic violence are often too frightened to testify.
The person who assaulted them is seldom in jail awaiting trial but is out on bond.
Shelters for battered women are hardly fortresses and in some communities, keeping their location a secret, especially from the police, is difficult if not impossible.
Often, the batterer is the sole support of the woman and her children . While the system eventually may help with basic needs, it's not immediate. Children's needs can't wait days, weeks and months.
Of course, some of you had rather use this domestic violence case as another opportunity to bash Jackson and JPD . You seem not to notice where this took place and who is dismissing the case.
Did that feel good @7:04 AM?
Prosecutor went forward with the case. He presented the statements and video to judge. Victim refused to testify. Blame the judge. Prosecution threw everything it had at the case.
8:05am, what is your point? 7:04am is 100% correct.
I too am confused that with video evidence, they didn't go forward with the prosecution. Are Madison county judges going soft on crime?
Danks would've convicted the thug and made him win on appeal.
You're wrong Kingfloat. Another lawyer without a law license practicing on a blogsite. You have a hard on for Danks but can't back up your B.S.
KF, if it were a Jackson prosecutor, there are those on this site who would assume incompetence by both the judge and prosecutor given the same facts.
Indeed, some commented before my post who did bring up " Jacktown" and Stokes.
I suspect they just look at the pictures and in usual fashion didn't read what you wrote. I doubt they caught that this failure of justice occurred in Ridgeland.
1 failure in Ridgeland, 1000 failures in Jackbekistan.
Which jurisdiction is worse?
MLEOTA vs JPD training it is in the details. Period.
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