An investigation is underway after two Baton Rouge police officers were seen in a 2019 video holding a teenager while his mother belted him. The policemen’s body cameras captured them suggesting that they hold down the 14-year-old boy so that his mother could punish him.
They made fun of him while his mother repeatedly questioned him about whether he was going to tell the police what he knew about a shooting.
Attorney Ryan Thompson, who represents the teen in separate legal matters, filed the internal affairs complaint on November 18 after discovering the video. He identified the cops as Adam Rhodes and Jermaine Javius.
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Thompson told WBRZ, “We’ve seen this before, where individuals are taken to a warehouse and they’re interrogated, beaten and tased all in the name of providing information. It’s the same for this individual. He’s the victim. Why are we holding individuals and encouraging individuals to be beaten?”
Rhodes is shown on camera questioning the boy about details of a drive-by shooting in which the teen’s home was struck by gunfire. Officer Rhodes seemingly became irritated with the teenager because he laughed and waved him off.
Rhodes shot back, “I’m not your momma, laugh all you f**king want to,” to which the teenager said, “That’s crazy.”
Rhodes replied, “No, what’s crazy is your level of cowardice.”
In a prepared statement, Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse explained that “The mother requested officers assist her to discipline her son. Officers did comply with her request and held the 14-year-old male down on a bed while the mother hit him on his rear with a belt.”
However, Thompson argued, “If this is called assisting in disciplining a child I would say that, if this was my child, I wouldn’t want their help, anyone watching this would not want the Baton Rouge police’s help.”
The lawyer informed the publication that the cops pressed the boy’s mother into giving the beating, noting an incident in the video in which Rhodes asks the boy’s mother, “You got a belt? Undo your belt. Let’s go in the house. I promise I’ll hold his arm while you tear that a** up.”
“I ain’t kidding at all. Below the waist, don’t break the skin—that’s what the law says.”
Both officers are shown holding the teen down while his mother hits him roughly 40 times before stopping because her arm hurts.
However, Thompson asserts that “in no situation do courts authorize officers to hold a 14-year-old child down—a victim—in the name of getting information. What is a police officer’s job, and I guarantee you, that post does not teach them to assist in disciplining children, so this notion that officers were in the right, I would totally disagree with it, and I would add that I’m sure, in fact, I know it is not within policy.”
He said, “There needs to be attention. There needs to be something done in the treatment of our juveniles and our elderly.”
Thompson said Chief Morse was the training officer at the police academy when the incident happened. Javius was the president of his 2019 academy class.
