JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former Jacksonville police officer accused of beating a woman who was in handcuffs pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of misdemeanor battery.
The State Attorney’s Office released a disposition statement on the charges against former officer Akinyemi Borisade, explaining why the charges weren’t upgraded to felony battery against Mayra Martinez.
“It took them a long time to come up with simple battery,” Martinez's attorney, John Phillips, said. “What officer Borisade did to Mayra was more than an unwanted touching. It caused serious bodily harm, and permanent injury that we can go through.”
The Sheriff's Office fired Borisade after cameras captured him repeatedly striking Martinez, who was handcuffed, in the sally port at the jail. Martinez told News4Jax that she suffered a concussion and nerve damage from the beating.
Video taken in a parking lot in front of Scores, an adult club on University Boulevard at Philips Highway, shows Martinez's violent arrest. According to the police report, officers were called to the bar to escort Martinez from the property because she was drunk and belligerent after quitting work on her first day.
Martinez was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, and according to the police report had to be struck several times in the back because she was kicking and biting at the officers.
Borisade later shoved Martinez against a wall in the sally port and after she appeared to try to kick at him, he struck her several times while she was still handcuffed.
Phillips wanted the charges against Borisade upgraded to a felony, but prosecutor Rich Mantei said the evidence was not there.
“We can't establish that Miss Martinez actually sustained any injuries that the courts have defined as meeting that threshold,” Mantei said.
Phillips disputes that, saying he has medical records that show Martinez has severe back and neck injuries from the beating.
"She's got four bulges in her neck and a bulge in her back," Phillips said. "Those are serious injuries. Those are permanent injuries."
But the State Attorney's Office said those injuries likely occurred elsewhere.
"She got into a rather serious car crash while she was participating in an armed robbery in 2004 down in the Orlando area," Mantei said. "The car is described as having flipped several times and gone over speeds of 100 mph. She sustained injuries in a car crash."
Aside from the 2004 armed robbery arrest, the disposition statement also included Martinez was arrested for DUI in 2012 after drinking three Long Islands and smoking marijuana and she was arrested in Orange County for resisting and disturbing the peace in 2014. She was convicted of disorderly conduct and brawling and fighting.
Mantei said there are other problems and concern with Martinez, and those are reasons why he can’t charge Borisade with a felony.
"Evidence doesn’t show that there was a loss of consciousness or a concussion, at least at the time," Mantei said. "She certainly didn't report that. She denied it specifically. She actually denied that night that she had any back pain. I don't doubt she doesn't have the disk. I saw the results of the MRIs. I saw the exams, but as I said, it's impossible to tie those injuries to this particular incident with any clarity at all. And if I can't do that I can't charge."
But Phillips said much of this has to do with the fact the charges are against a former officer.
"The state attorneys ask these officers every single day to testify in their cases, and they do a very difficult job," Phillips said. "But when one of them messes up, we need to adjust the scales to level up and be fair."
The disposition statement also mentioned that Borisade had a criminal history of his own -- petit theft prior to becoming an officer.
Rhonda Peoples-Waters, an attorney not affiliated with the case, said a felony charge would have helped the plaintiff with a potential civil case against the officer and JSO, but believes the battery charge will remain.
"Once the State Attorney's Office makes that decision that they will not pursue a felony charge, it's very unlikely and really impossible for the state to now come back and try to prove that there are some felony charges, unless they can really identify that the prior incidents did not cause this injury," Peoples-Waters said.
Report details another altercation
The disposition report sheds new light on what happened at the jail, including that the sally port beating was not the last physical confrontation that Martinez had with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office that day.
There was a later incident in the jail between Martinez and a female corrections officer.
Martinez, who was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, was acting erratically and then stripped all her clothes off in front of several male corrections officers and took off a belly button ring, but said she couldn't remove her nose ring, the report said.
The female corrections officer tried to restrain Martinez, and a struggle began in the bathroom, according to the report. Multiple officers were needed to subdue her.
They put a uniform top on her, then handcuffs. She continued to resist and tried to kick an officer, the report said.
The officers brought in a restraint chair and told her she would be placed in it if she didn’t calm down. Martinez continued to taunt the officers and said she would sue them, the report said.
When she later spoke to the JSO Integrity Unit, she admitted to being a binge drinker and daily drug user and said she had bipolar disorder and had tried to kill herself several times, according to the report.
The State Attorney’s Office said that because Martinez “picked a fight with many of the people she encountered that day,” exactly when her injuries were suffered would be impossible to prove, and felony battery charges would not fit the evidence and would likely be dropped upon a motion to dismiss.
Phillips countered the findings of the disposition report Wednesday, saying "Her doctors can speak to injury. Her records can speak to injury. They didn’t want to hear from them. They didn’t even want to recount the bad findings in her records. It’s too much evidence against Officer Borisade and JSO, who conducted this investigation."
Phillips said there is video from inside the jail, and has asked for it to be released.
Borisade did not appear in court Wednesday. His attorney entered his not guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge on his behalf. Borisade's next hearing will be June 21.
His attorney declined to comment after Wednesday's court proceedings.