Newly released video of an 8-year-old boy arrested in Florida in 2018 has led renewed checks. The bodycam video, posted online Sunday night by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, shows a Key West officer trying to captivate the boy at school.
The boy, who has emotional and behavioral disabilities, was charged with criminal battery, according to a press release from the law firm Crump. The boy’s mother, Bianca N. Digennaro, has retained Crump and civil rights lawyer Devon M. Jacob to represent her family in the case.
In the press release, Crump said the video shows “officials embarrass and scare the little child with ‘bang bang’ tactics.”
At least three officers are present in the video, including the one wearing the body camera. One officer is seen telling the boy that he will go to jail, and then kidnap the boy in a school hall. The officer tries to put the boy in handcuffs, which are too large for the boy’s wrists.
The officers tell the boy to keep his hands behind his back as they lead him outside. Another woman is present for part of the arrest, which took place in December 2018, but it is unclear who she is.
“You understand that this is very serious. And I hate that you put me in this position that I have to do this,” one officer told the boy. “Okay, the thing is, you made a mistake and now it’s time to learn from it and grow out of it, not repeat the same mistake.”
In his statement, Crump said: “At eight years old, 3.5 ft tall and 64 lbs., This little boy posed no threat to anyone.” A teacher called police when the boy went out, Crump said.
According to the incident report, the teacher, Ashley Henriquez, told police that the boy burned herself during class. Henriquez said the boy was not sitting properly at the lunch table and that she had asked him several times to sit properly because she was concerned about his safety.
She asked the boy to walk with her and he “started cursing at her and told her, ‘my mother will hit your ass,'” the incident report, written by Officer Michael Malgrat, reads. Henriquez explained that the boy then hit her in the chest. Malgrat wrote in the report that he observed that the boy “had his hands clasped in fists and that he was posing as if he was ready to fight.”
Henriquez sustained no obvious injuries as a result of the punch, according to the report. The boy was placed in custody and transported to Monroe County Detention Center for processing.
“Based on the facts of the case, there is probable cause to believe that FSS had violated 784,081 (2c) by actually and intentionally beating Henriquez against her will,” the incident report reads. “Henriquez is committed to the Monroe County School District as a licensed teacher.”
In his statement, Crump said the boy had an IEP, as an individualized education program for children with a disability. The IEP is “intended to ensure that his educational experience was appropriate for him,” Crump said in the statement.
“Instead of honoring and carrying out that plan, the school placed him with a substitute teacher who had no awareness or concern about his needs and who escalated the situation by using his hands to forcibly move him,” he said. “said the civil rights lawyer in the statement.
“This is a heartbreaking example of how our education and policing systems train children to be criminals by treating them as criminals – if convicted, the child in this case would have been a convicted felon at the age of eight,” he said. . “This child has been failed by everyone who played a part in this horrific incident.”
Fellow lawyer Jacob said as a former police officer he was “surprised” by the holding and carrying of the offices.
Crump and Jacob said they would file a federal lawsuit on behalf of Bianca N. Digennaro, the boy’s mother, against officers, school officials, the Monroe County School District, and the city of Key West, according to the press release.
CBS News has reached out to the Key West Police Department and Monroe County School District for more information and is awaiting a response.
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