Orlando Cop with History of Trouble Being Charged With Felony Battery—PD Says No 'Sustained Discipline' Against Him Before
Peter Delio was the subject of complaints before but the police department says they weren't sustained, even when they cost the city money.
A police officer in Orlando, Florida, is expected be charged with felony battery over an incident of alleged excessive force inside a holding cell. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement told the Orlando Police Department it would be charging Officer Peter Delio over the incident that happened last August.
The Orlando Sentinel reports:
"We support the judicial process and we take all allegations of excessive force seriously," OPD said in a statement.
According to the alleged victim's attorney, Delio arrived at the Underground bar on Aug. 12 to haul Rob Liese away after he refused to pay a $60 bar tab.
Liese said Delio kicked him in the stomach as he was getting into the cruiser because he wasn't moving fast enough.
Later on in the holding cell, Liese allegedly broke a window after banging his head against it.
Delio is then seen on surveillance video barging into the cell and kneeing Liese with enough force to rupture his spleen, according to Liese's attorney Bill Ruffier.
"Get up scumbag, you wanna be a tough guy?" Delio said to Liese, according to Delio's arrest report.
Ruffier said his client lay on the ground for almost two hours before he received any medical attention.
Delio turned himself in yesterday and was released on bond. The OPD may say it takes allegations of abuse seriously but Delio has been suspended with pay. He's also been the subject of complaints before—the police department insists the people who filed those complaints were all uncooperative.
Liese is also filing a lawsuit against the city. It's not the first lawsuit Delio had yielded either. Last year Delio seized the iPhone of a man who was filming someone else's arrest and then arrested him for "resisting arrest without violence." The city settled for $15,000 and the police department can continue to claim Delio has no "prior sustained discipline."
h/t BakedPenguin
