On Feb. 6th at approximately 8:45 am I was stopped for any alleged seat belt violation in the parking lot of the BP fueling station located at 4849 Ga-34 West Newnan Ga 30263. The officer's name that initiated the traffic stop was DS Teare. Me and DS Teare have had prior encounters and it is known that we do not like one another. I stepped out and asked officer Teare why he kept messing with me, he then ordered me to get back into the vehicle. I said I will but I would really like to know what I ever did to you for you to be messing with me. He told me to get back in the vehicle at this point I obliged and got back into the vehicle. He then informed me I was being pulled over for a safety belt violation which I pulled the seat belt off as I was turning into the fueling station because I was about to get out and fuel up the truck. Also the fueling station parking lot is private property and there are no requirements for seatbelts on private property. He asked if I had proof of insurance. I told him no and he said that's another ticket. At this point he returned back to his vehicle to issue the citations. I informed him that he had 20 minutes to issue the citations and that there was case law proving that the courts have said that 20 minutes is ample enough time to write a traffic citation. He responded saying that he had all the time he needed. At this point I was waiting to be issued my citations when another officer arrived on scene DS Brookes. DS Brookes approached my vehicle on the passenger side where I advised him the other officer had been harassing me and following me on multiple occasions. He acted as if he did not care to hear anything I was saying then asked me if I had any weapons on me which I answered no. Then ordered me out of my vehicle to sit on the bumpers of the other officer's vehicle for no reason. I obliged and stepped out as I got to the bumper of the patrol vehicle. I sat down and put my hands in my pocket and realized I had a pocket knife in my pocket. At this point I was scared for safety considering I had just told the officer I had no weapons. I stood up from the bumper and took two steps towards the officer to get his attention so that he could retrieve the knife as soon as possible. He then semi aggressively removed the knife from my pocket. By this point the other officer had gotten out of his patrol car and yelled 95 at him at the time I had no idea what "95 him" meant. They both immediately grabbed me and tried to slam me face first into the concrete. Once they got me on the ground DS Brookes put his forearm across my neck and choked me as hard as he could for 10+ seconds while telling me he was going to punch me in my face. The other officer is tasing me while I am being choked. I cannot speak until he stops choking me then I can finally verbally communicate that I am not resisting. I was then transported to the piedmont hospital in newnan to check out my leg that was injured where I had prior injuries from a motorcycle incident from 2009. We went to the hospital then went to the Coweta county sheriff's department. Once in booking The arresting officer Teare turned his BWC off and proceeded to tell me if I fought these charges in court that they would up the charges to felony charges. I bonded out on the charges and went the next morning and filed formal complaints on both officers. I called and spoke to Mark Feninger in Internal Affairs. Mark told me that he could not investigate unless the head of the traffic division told him that it rose to the level of internal affairs. Mark also said he was forwarding an email to Major Campbell who was over the traffic division. A couple of hours later a Captain Smith called and had a demeaning attitude throughout the conversation telling me I needed to talk like I had some sense that his officer had placed an "accidental arm across my neck and that it looked like it was corrected fairly quickly", which was not the case. Captain Smith also said that he himself and three other training officers had viewed this video and had found no wrongdoing but they would not allow internal affairs to start an investigation on the incident. Captain Smith also said that the Sheriff's department would never say they did anything wrong unless a court said they did something wrong. I was initially charged with the seatbelt violation and obstruction of an officer ( For not sitting on the bumper when I was asked to). Once I hired my attorney to fight the case I was charged with two additional counts of obstruction of an officer ( for resisting arrest ). There was a hearing scheduled to take place and before the hearing could be heard the prosecution dropped all the charges. I have all body cam footage booking footage where the officer threatens me that if I fight the charges they will add additional charges. Also conversation with the LT the following day where he admits his officers could have done a better job however all they did was talk to the officers. I was slammed to the ground and choked and tased for no reason. I also have the gas station video that shows that the officers moved first and I was not resisting.
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