Mike Piotrowski
on July 16, 2022
13 views
You need to read this infuriating testimony from Joshua Rohrer's attorney.
What Gastonia Police did to Joshua is even worse than I knew.
We will not rest until we get justice for Joshua and Sunshine.
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While I am pleased the charges were dismissed, the community must be allowed to view the body camera footage to grasp the severity of the abuse and corruption that occurred.
It is rare for a client’s claims that initially appear so sensational to be entirely accurate. After I was finally able to review the body camera footage, however, Mr. Rohrer’s statements were entirely correct, but what was reflected in recordings were, in fact, far worse than what Mr. Rohrer was able to hear and see on the scene.
Officers Taylor and Brooks fabricated every single allegation they used to approach, detain, assault, and arrest Mr. Rohrer. Because they knew Mr. Rohrer was a severely disabled veteran (based on previous interactions with him) in need of his service animal, the officers taunted Mr. Rohrer and preyed on his disability by threatening (with no basis) to take his service dog from him.
The officers followed through with that threat when Officer Taylor, with no warning or explanation, yelled that Sunshine just bit him (a claim directly refuted by the footage showing Officer Taylor still standing 6 feet away from Sunshine and with Sunshine facing away from the him) and fired his taser into the back side of Sunshine.
For nearly 20 minutes, Mr. Rohrer sat handcuffed on the ground begging the officer to please find his service dog and crying for anyone to tell him she was ok. The officers (at that point nearly 15-20 that had arrived on the scene) ignored his pleas as they stood by laughing at him.
Equally troubling, the officers instructed animal control to leave the scene without Sunshine and then allowed the service dog to be seized by a stranger whom the police failed to identify or obtain any contact information for. The officers also threatened the eyewitnesses who repeatedly confronted the officers for their fabricated their claims, including a their blatantly false claim that Sunshine had bitten no one. In fact, Officer Brooks even threatened to arrest one or more witnesses if refused to stop informing the other officers on the scene of what she and Officer Taylor had done, resulting in no witness statements being taken.
Sunshine was later killed and, despite the body camera footage showing each and every allegation by the officers was false, the DA pursued baseless charges against Mr. Rohrer and Chief Brittain refused to investigate, disciple, or terminate the officers involved.
We will be petitioning for the body camera footage to be released in the next few days, but, if the public is denied the opportunity to review it, the actions of our government officials will be swept under the rug and situations like this will continue to happen to other members of our community.
Andrew M. LaBreche, Esq.
Woodridge Law
Dimension: 720 x 597
File Size: 55.32 Kb
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Bree Osteen
This is horrendous!
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July 17, 2022