‘He Still Carries Those Injuries with Him Today’: Newly Released Video Shows Convicted Deputies Ordering Black Man to Strip Naked Before Punching Him 50 Times In Nearly a Minute
Two Louisiana sheriff’s deputies who ordered a Black man named Jarius Brown to strip naked before punching him more than 50 times, breaking his eye socket and nose, would have gotten away with their crime if it had not been for the United States Department of Justice stepping in. After all, Louisiana State Police had already cleared the DeSoto Parish sheriff’s deputies of wrongdoing, maintaining the agency’s usual pattern of protecting dirty cops who abuse Black men, according to a pending lawsuit filed by Brown against the deputies. However, the beating was caught on video which is what led the feds to successfully prosecute both Javarrea Pouncy and DeMarkes Grant last year, with both being sentenced to prison. Jarius Brown was ordered to strip naked before he was viciously beaten by two deputies who were convicted and sentenced to jail. The video of the beating was recently made public. (Photo: ACLU of Louisiana) But it was only a couple of weeks ago that the video was made public as part of the pending lawsuit Brown filed against the deputies last year. The video, posted below, does not contain audio but shows the deputies ordering Brown to strip naked and squat to determine if he was trying to smuggle contraband into the jail. ‘That’s for Free, Bro’: New Jersey Police Officers Mocked Black Man Recovering from Brain Surgery as They Squeezed His Scrotum and Beat Him During Arrest, Lawsuit Says But the deputies apparently were not satisfied with how Brown was squatting, so they walked up to him and started beating him for nearly a minute. It is clear from the video that Brown was not the aggressor. Watch the video below. The Beating The incident took place on Sept. 27, 2019, after Louisiana State Police arrested Brown, who was 25 at the time, on charges of stealing a car, according to The Associated Press. The lawsuit states he also had a small bag of weed on him. The state trooper transported Brown to the DeSoto Parish Sheriff’s Office and dropped him off. Deputies Pouncy and Grant then took Brown into a laundry room to change into an orange jail jumpsuit. The deputies ordered him to strip, squat and cough which he did, according to the claim. But then they viciously beat him, punching him more than 50 times for nearly a minute. According to the lawsuit: After succumbing to the violence, Mr. Brown was provided a prison jumpsuit by Officer Defendants and led to a holding cell where he remained in isolation—bloody, beaten and struggling to remain conscious, before his injuries were noticed by another officer at the Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Brown did not provoke the attack, nor did Defendants explain their actions contemporaneously or after the attack. Mr. Brown sustained injuries to his face and torso as a result of Defendants’ punches. He was left bloody and with fractures to his face and eye socket. He also experienced significant pain in his chest. Brown was eventually transported to a hospital after the warden got word of his injuries. And days later, DeSoto Parish Sheriff Jayson Richardson suspended Grant and pressured Pouncy to resign. The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Louisiana and the Covington & Burling law firm of Washington D.C., accuses the two defendants of violating Brown’s Fourth and 14th Amendment rights by attacking him. "Without accountability, law enforcement, and specifically those in DeSoto Parish, will continue to violate the rights of people like Mr. Brown, producing disastrous consequences," the claim states The Coverup Former DeSoto Parish District Attorney Gary Evans told the Associated Press the local sheriff’s office refused to provide him the video in the weeks and months following the beating. But the Louisiana State Police took over the investigation, waiting months before they even viewed the video and not interviewing Brown until more than a year after the bloody beating. In 2021, Louisiana State Police concluded its investigation, determining that Brown was the aggressor. But it is not clear how it arrived at that conclusion other than the usual corruption within that agency – especially against Black men. According to the claim: For the past decade, the State’s most esteemed police force has ignored or concealed numerous pieces of evidence related to police brutality and misconduct and, by setting that example, has impeded efforts to discourage and mitigate police misconduct among other forces with which they interact. Specifically, LSP has routinely refused to release all relevant video footage related to violence committed by troopers against the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect, a majority of whom are Black men. Sadly, Mr. Brown is one of countless Black men who have been unjustly brutalized by law enforcement. Last year, prosecutors dismissed negligent homicide charges against a Louisiana state trooper named Kory York who was caught on video dragging a Black man named Ronald Greene on the ground, pressing his face into the asphalt. But in 2023, the United States Department of Justice under President Joe Biden’s administration began investigating the Brown case and arrived at a different conclusion, indicting the two deputies. Last year, Pouncy, 31, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for excessive force, and Grant was sentenced to ten months for obstructing justice but has since been released. “Prosecutions such as these are critical to ensure that the good work of law enforcement officers is not hampered by the heinous acts of bad law enforcement officers,” said U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown for the Western District of Louisiana in a press release from last year. But the video remained shielded from the public for six years until September, when it was made public as part of the lawsuit. “This was a great miscarriage of justice at the state level, and it shows the system has broken down and doesn’t protect citizens,” Evans, the former district attorney, told the Associated Press. “In a community like this, the federal government is the only avenue for anything to get done.” Then-Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated the following in the USDOJ press release. “The defendant pledged to protect and serve his community, but instead, he repeatedly punched a detainee without justification, leaving him bloodied and broken,” she said. “People in detention have the right to be treated humanely and not to be brutalized by excessive force. This sentence sends a clear message that we will not tolerate such abuses behind bars. The Justice Department will hold accountable officials who violate detainees’ civil rights.” But the Department of Justice has reversed course under Trump, cancelling settlements with the Minneapolis and Louisville police departments, which had been investigated by the federal government following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Under Trump, federal agents have threatened to arrest Black people for smoking cigarettes. And earlier this year, a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy named Trevor James Kirk was convicted of a felony by a jury and was facing a 10-year prison sentence for attacking and pepper-spraying a woman recording him arresting a man when the Department of Justice stepped in, reducing the felony to a misdemeanor. Kirk was sentenced to four months instead, prompting the resignation of several prosecutors from the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office. “In my view, the jury verdict was fully supported and the case was not unfairly argued, as the government at some early point argued,” Judge Steven V. Wilson said after handing down the four-month sentence. Brown, 32, is still affected by the beating six years later. “During his hospital stay, Mr. Brown — who suffered from substantial injuries to the face, nose, and chest — struggled to remain conscious,” the claim states. “Mr. Brown also experienced mental and emotional trauma from the beating. He still carries those injuries with him today and remains anxious and uneasy in the presence of law enforcement.”
