A New York City police officer accused of breaking into a Nashville home and threatening the family living there with the n-word has pleaded no contest to bills introduced in opposition to him.
Michael Reynolds was on vacation and staying at an Airbnb in Nashville with friends, one door down from Conese Halliburton and her four sons. He later broke into the Halliburton’s home in what police say was under the influence of alcohol.
Detectives in Nashville have since been investigating the officer who works with the New York Police Department but on Thursday, Reynolds entered a plea in Nashville to one count of aggravated criminal trespassing and three counts of assault.
The break-in, which left the family distressed, was reported to have happened at about 2:30 a.m. on July 9.
40-year-old Halliburton shares the house with her four sons, aged 20, 17, 11, and 8. On July 9, Reynolds allegedly kicked in their door and made threats once inside the home, using a racial slur on the way out.
Recounting her ordeal, Conese Halliburton, the house owner, said she felt traumatized reliving the incident in court. “He knows what he did, it’s on video, there’s audio. There was people there so how can he not plead guilty and say this is what you did and stand up and be truthful. You’re an officer,” Halliburton said.
Halliburton told Metro officers Reynolds kicked in the door and started yelling at her and her two sons who had not gone to bed yet. A surveillance camera reportedly captured part of the exchange where a man’s voice was heard shouting, “Try to shoot me, I’ll break every f ***king bone in your f***king neck.”
“The only thing that stopped him was my sons. He made it past the first bedroom, down the hall to like two more bedrooms and it was scary,” Halliburton said.
Her 17-year-old was said to have looked out in a front window and noticed a man standing in the yard, shouting.
He then came to the door. Halliburton described hearing a “boom” as Reynolds, described as tall, white and with closely cut dirty blond or brown hair, kicked in the door and began repeatedly screaming “This is my mother***ing house,” according to Tennessean.
Her two oldest sons held him back in the hallway of the home as Halliburton yelled for him to leave. Meanwhile, their mom was on phone with dispatchers.
Upon hearing from the 911 operator that officers were down the street and almost to the house, Reynolds turned around and walked out, Halliburton said.
“I think Mr. Reynolds is a criminal, I think he is a racist, and I think he is not fit to carry a badge or a gun and I think he should be fired,” Halliburton’s attorney, Daniel Horwitz, said.
After Thursday’s plea, Reynold’s lawyer, Justin Adams, declined questions. Meanwhile, his sentencing hearing has been set for November 7 by Criminal Court Judge Mark Fishburn.
