Police Shootings / Possible Abuse Threads [merged]

A former Maryland police officer who was fired by four small departments in the D.C. area in less than a decade was convicted Monday of illegally pepper-spraying a motorist during a traffic stop but acquitted of a charge related to his filing of a court affidavit that prosecutors said gave a false account of the incident.


Philip Dupree, 40, was fired by three departments in Prince George’s County, including for allegedly using excessive force, before being hired by a fourth department, in the town of Fairmount Heights, where he was working when the pepper-spraying occurred on Aug. 4, 2019.

A jury in U.S. District Court in Washington convicted him Monday of violating the motorist’s civil rights with the burst of pepper spray but found him not guilty of obstructing justice.


The motorist, Torrence Sinclair, now 24, was handcuffed and shouting obscenities when Dupree pepper-sprayed him in the face at close range, defense and prosecution lawyers agreed. Dupree later asserted in a court affidavit that Sinclair had tried to bite him, which prosecutors said was untrue.

The defendant punished Mr. Sinclair because he didn’t like him mouthing off,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sanjay H. Patel said in his closing argument last week, adding, “The defendant didn’t like that [Sinclair] questioned his traffic stop.”

Patel noted that the pepper-spraying was “committed by someone with a badge and a gun, someone sworn to serve and protect the community.”……

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/06/17/police-illegal-pepper-spray-trial/