Jury returns mixed verdict in Phoenix malicious prosecution trial 

PHOENIX (CN) — A six-person jury on Friday found Phoenix police officer Darrell Magee not liable for First Amendment retaliation and federal malicious prosecution but returned an undecided verdict on a state law malicious prosecution claim in a case arising from the arrest of Jamaar Williams at a 2019 protest.

Williams, a local attorney and activist, sued the city of Phoenix and Officer Magee a year after he was arrested at the July 12, 2019, “Lights for Liberty” protest against the federal government’s treatment of immigrants at the border. Williams was charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest, but a state judge dismissed the case against him.

In his civil complaint, Williams says he never assaulted the officer, nor pulled away from him, and that Magee made up the charges after Williams threatened to sue him.

The jury found Williams did not push the officer. It also found Officer Magee did not grab Williams’ arm, and that Williams did not pull away from him. However, the jury did find that the officer reasonably believed Williams had pulled away from him, and ultimately returned a mixed verdict on Williams’ claims.

“I have some solace in the fact that the jurors, at least from the verdict, it doesn’t seem like they believed Magee,” Williams said outside the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix. “Because they found that those factual questions weren’t true.”

“They gave him a pass, although they agreed with me that the video doesn’t fucking show that and I didn’t fucking do that," he continued.

Magee declined to comment when approached outside the courtroom.

Due to the jury being unable to decide on a verdict for the state law malicious prosecution claim, formal motions for a mistrial on that question will be filed Monday.

“The federal claims, you need the federal constitutional hook. On the state claim, you don’t,” Williams’ attorney Mart Harris said after the verdict. “But on the state claim, you need indication of actual innocence, and on the federal claims, you don’t.”

Harris said Williams will have to retry the state claim before he can appeal the federal claims decided against him. On retrial, Harris said Williams’ main arguments won’t change.

“The truth never has to change, unlike Officer Magee’s word,” he said.

During the trial, Williams, a local attorney and activist, called to the witness stand three police officers present at the July 12, 2019, protest at which he was arrested to corroborate the story of Officer Magee, who said Williams shoved him in the chest and pulled away when Magee grabbed his arm.

Lt. Benjamin Moore, who commanded the tactical response unit deployed to manage the protest, said he didn’t see the altercation and “couldn’t tell you either way.”

Joseph Gage, who stood behind Magee on the skirmish line pushing Williams and other protesters on the sidewalk on Central Avenue that night, said he saw a struggle in the corner of his eye but couldn’t tell what was going on.

Francisco Barrios, who wrote the initial probable cause affidavit as orated to him by Magee after Williams was later arrested by another officer, said he never saw what Magee described to him, and never made an attempt to verify the truth.

“Well, if he lied, then there should be punishment,” he said on the witness stand this week.

Barrios also acknowledged if an officer didn’t want to testify at a preliminary hearing, that officer would ask another to write the report for them.

“If he was telling the truth, he would have written the statement himself and would have testified at the preliminary hearing himself,” Madeksho told the jury Friday morning.

A state judge dismissed the charges at the preliminary hearing after learning that Barrios had not witnessed the events himself and that Barrios saw video of a “caucasian male” engaged in the exact behavior Magee had attributed to Williams, who is Black.

“He presented false information that ended up in the hands of Deputy County Attorney Jeremy Miller,” Madeksho said. “Officer Magee misled Deputy County Attorney Jeremy Miller. Because of that, there was a finding of no probable cause, thankfully.”

Lori Berke, defending Magee, blamed the county attorney for not subpoenaing Magee.

“So the judge dismissed the charge without prejudice so the prosecutor could refile the charges and bring Mr. Magee in to testify,” she said.

She argued Magee couldn’t have acted with malice because he never recommended that Williams be charged with resisting arrest, only aggravated assault, which was dropped before the hearing. Miller chose to pursue resisting arrest charges on his own.

Berke asked the jury what Magee would have to gain by lying about one of many people protesting that night.

On rebuttal, plaintiff attorney Mart Harris answered, “his safety.”

After Williams’ wife, Heather Hamel, is pushed to the ground, the video shows Williams asking Magee if he had ever been sued before.

“He knew Mr. Williams is a lawyer,” Harris told the jury. “He said he found that out later that night.”

Harris said Williams knew better than to throw away his legal career by pushing an officer surrounded by dozens more.

After Magee pushed Williams back toward the sidewalk, as seen on grainy police surveillance video difficult to discern, Madeksho said Magee told him to “get back.”

“Not ‘hands in the air,’” Madeksho said. Not ‘you’re under arrest.’ Not ‘stop resisting’. There was no attempt to arrest Jamaar Williams.”

Madeksho said Magee changed his story too many times between the incident and the last day of trial to be considered trustworthy.

Magee said in his supplemental report that he pushed Jamaar Williams to effectuate an arrest. But when asked directly by a juror why he pushed Williams, he said officers were given instructions to move protesters back onto the sidewalk.

“It’s a different answer than any reasons he’s given before for seven years,” Madeksho said.

Harris added Magee said in his deposition that the surveillance video was too blurry to see, but said on the witness stand that he could clearly see Williams shove him in that same video.

“Memories fade,” Harris said. “Over a few days, his memory got better? Over seven years, his memory and apparently his vision got better?”

Williams asked the jury for $7 million in compensatory damages and $21 million in punitive damages.

“I do still think there needs to be some accountability even though there’s some verification of the truth,” Williams said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

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