Angry Tamarac city commissioners Wednesday morning demanded a third deputy involved in the forceful arrest of a Taravella High freshman be forbidden from working in the city.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to ask Broward Sheriff Greg Tony to remove a third deputy from any assignments in the city, although his role isn’t completely known in last week’s high-profile arrest and head banging of 15-year-old DeLucca “Lucca” Rolle.
City spokeswoman Elise Boston said the “city manager will need to review the [Sheriff’s] contract and move forward accordingly.”
Cell phone video — which went viral on social media — shows deputies spraying Rolle, throwing him to the ground and punching his head into the pavement at a McDonald’s near the school.
Tony didn’t want to hear it, telling commissioners he was working on the investigation and deputies are entitled to due process. Two other deputies involved were suspended Tuesday pending the investigation.
“I don’t see any reason why the third deputy should not be removed,” Commissioner Marlon Bolton told the sheriff. “They were all abusing this young man.”
Tony said he was reviewing bodycam video, as well as McDonald’s surveillance video. “I will not stand here as if I’m suspect to anything,” he said. “I will not be lectured to.”
“That is the same aggression your officers used,” Bolton told him.
Although the high school is in Coral Springs, scores of students often walk across the street to McDonald’s, which is within the Tamarac city limits.
Broward prosecutors said they won’t file any charges against Rolle. Another teen was arrested in the incident, and charges have not been filed in that case.
Rolle’s lawyers told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that his nose was broken during the incident and they will file a civil lawsuit against the agency.
Nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Rolle was arrested on trumped up charges of aggravated assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, and trespassing, which were enough to disqualify him from being released to his mother immediately.
Crump said the teen, who has not been in trouble before, spent the night at a detention facility before being allowed to go home. Only then was he treated for his broken nose.
“When you have well-trained police following policies and procedures of responsible sheriff’s departments, when they encounter a crowd of young people, then they will strive to de-escalate the situation,” Crump said Wednesday. “That would be Policing 101. However what we saw was Racism 101 and they came and ratcheted up the situation, escalated the situation and commotion, and you saw then pepper spray Lucca and when Lucca walked away from them, grab him, slam him to the ground, hit his head against the concrete on more than one occasion and then punch him which clearly is in no one’s training manual.
“They lied. [They said] Lucca was reaching for the cop’s gun. It’s just ridiculous, an outright lie.”
On Wednesday, Sheriff Tony faulted prosecutors who he said “jumped ahead of this investigation. Politics is starting to impact justice.”
Student eyewitnesses said after the first student was arrested, Rolle stepped up to pick up his classmate’s dropped phone, which is how he got caught up in the melee.
Some Tamarac commissioners have lashed out on social media about the incident — more Tamarac students attend the high school over the border than even students from Coral Springs.
School records show 1,370 Tamarac students are assigned to Taravella, which is 200 more students assigned to the school who live in southern Coral Springs. The remaining students of the 3,200 students come from throughout the county, including North Lauderdale, which is where Rolle lives.
“To stay silent is not acceptable to me,” said Commissioner Julie Fishman on Facebook. “Many of us have seen the video clip of the officer taking down a young man, hitting him in the head and shoving his head into the pavement. We have each seen the violence used. We have felt the horror of these actions and I couldn’t help but react as a mother; how would I have felt if this were my child? What happened to instigate this show of force? What could possibly have happened between the officer involved and the young man to warrant this kind of force?
“In my opinion, no amount of interaction between the officer and that young man would have warranted this kind of violent reaction. If the officer is found to have used excessive force, he should be removed ASAP.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
lhuriash@sunsentinel.com, 954-572-2008 or Twitter @LisaHuriash