PITTSBURG — After just a few hours of deliberation, a Contra Costa jury acquitted a former Antioch police officer of committing assault when he punched and kicked a handcuffed man in 2022.
Matthew Nutt was found not guilty of a single misdemeanor assault charge in the July 1, 2022 beating of an East Bay resident named Terry Robinson. Jurors got the case around noon, and announced their verdict by 3 p.m.
Video shows Nutt punching, kneeing and kicking Robinson 16 times within 32 seconds after placing Robinson in handcuffs and attempting to maneuver him into a police SUV. Nutt’s lawyers argued that Robinson was “actively resisting” an arrest warrant for a shooting in Santa Cruz, while the prosecution said he was being pinned by police in the doorway of the vehicle.
Nutt’s trial lasted two days. His lawyer, Nicole Pifari, argued that he was being prosecuted for doing his job and that Robinson still posed a potential threat due to his large size and ability to headbutt or kick the officers. She said that Robinson was uninjured and he and Nutt later exchanged pleasantries.
Nutt testified in his own defense, telling jurors he carefully considered force options before concluding that he could make Robinson comply through blows to his stomach, but that he decided against using pepper spray, a stun gun, or baton to get him into the SUV. He admitted to downplaying the number of times he struck Robinson in a police report filed seven weeks later, but claimed it was unintentional.
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Pifari said she remained “perplexed by this criminal filing.”
“In my opinion it was nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to the video. The prosecution failed to call a single percipient witness with the most glaring omission being their failure to call the shooting suspect,” Pifari said. “Basically, the prosecution tried to ruin a decorated police officer and former combat veteran’s life without any evidence.”
Last year, Nutt was fired from the Antioch Police Department for multiple policy violations in connection with the beating.
The internal affairs probe was initiated by then-Sgt. Joshua Evans, who later lost his job after revelations that he’d sent racist texts to colleagues, including ones where he used slurs. Evans turned the case over to internal affairs after reviewing video of the incident and said “this does not look good,” according to police records.
Robinson has since added himself to a massive class action suit against the Antioch police force, which faces ongoing scrutiny for dual-scandals involving racist, homophobic and sexist texts and alleged crimes by former officers. Robinson was later convicted in connection with the Santa Cruz County shooting and sentenced to jail. He told KTVU in an interview he feels lucky to have survived the 2022 encounter with Nutt.
Though the timing of both cases was similar, Nutt was not involved in the much larger scandal involving 14 East Contra Costa law enforcement officers who have been charged with crimes, three of whom face accusations of committing violent civil rights violations.
Source: www.mercurynews.com