MONROE, La. — A federal jury in Louisiana acquitted a white state trooper on Wednesday who had been charged with civil rights violations stemming from a violent arrest of a Black motorist that was caught on camera.
Following a three-day trial, jurors found Jacob Brown not guilty of violating the civil rights of Aaron Bowman during a traffic stop in 2019.
Bowman was reportedly pulled over for “improper lane usage.” During the stop, Bowman had been forcibly removed from the vehicle by deputies and taken to the ground in the driveway to his home before Brown arrived. Body-camera footage showed the trooper hitting Bowman 18 times with a flashlight within less than 30 seconds.
In the video, Bowman can be heard screaming “I’m not resisting!” as he was being struck by the trooper.
Bowman suffered a broken jaw, broken ribs and a laceration to his head.
According to the Associated Press, state police investigated the violent attack 536 days after it occurred — weeks after Bowman filed a civil lawsuit against the agency.
In an AP investigation, Brown, who patrolled in northern Louisiana, was found to be involved in 23 use-of-force incidents between 2015 and 2021 when he resigned. Of those use-of-force incidents, 19 involved Black people.
Brown is still facing state charges in connection with another violent arrest of a Black motorist. After the arrest, in a group chat with other troopers, Brown reportedly wrote “it warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.”
Per the AP report, Brown is also the son of Bob Brown, a longtime state trooper who who was the agency’s chief of staff before retiring. The elder Brown had been previously reprimanded for calling Black colleagues the n-word and hanging a Confederate flag in his office.
More about the case and violent arrest can be found here.
