- November 19, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
An early Sunday-morning traffic stop escalated into a drug arrest involving multiple deputies and a suspect who threatened to sue the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, saying he’d been racially profiled and that deputies hurt him during the arrest.
Deputy George Hristakopoulos was on patrol in his cruiser at about 1 a.m. Sunday morning when he noticed a man — who he recognized as John Eric Hayden — riding a bicycle at the intersection of East Booe Street and South Pine Street.
But Hayden’s cycle wasn’t equipped for legal night-riding: He had no lights on the bike, Hristakopoulos wrote in his report, and there was another man riding on the handlebars, which is illegal in Florida.
Hristakopoulos turned his patrol car’s lights and siren on, and pulled over the bicycle.
Hayden stepped off the cycle, and the second man hopped off the handlebars.
Hristakopoulos told the two men why he’d stopped them, according to the report.
As he did, he noticed that the handlebar-rider kept his left hand in his left front pocket. He also acted nervous, Hristakopoulos wrote in his report, and said he’d done nothing wrong and was being racially profiled.
Hristakopoulos asked the man for his name, and he said that he’d done nothing wrong and shouldn’t have to give it.
Seconds later, Hristakopoulos wrote, another deputy showed up for backup. Hristakopoulos asked the second deputy to stand near the handle-bar rider, who then said his name was Isaac Brown.
Hristakopoulos asked Brown to take his hand out of his pocket “for officer-safety purposes,” according to the report, and he did.
Hristakopoulos began speaking with Hayden but kept his eyes on Brown, who repeatedly looked down at his pocket, the deputy wrote. Then he slipped his hand into his pocket again, and the second deputy told him to take his hand out of his pocket or he’d be handcuffed.
Brown took his hand out again, but then he reached back in once more and pulled out two “small, chalk-like cubes,” and dropped them on the ground in front of his feet, according to the report.
The deputy recognized them as “crack rocks.”
The second deputy handcuffed Brown, who “repeatedly pulled away” from him, according to the report.
Hristakopoulos “pushed the two several feet away from the evidence” — the rocks Brown had dropped on the ground — “in order to ensure that Mr. Brown would not destroy the evidence,” according to the report.
Hristakopoulos placed the two rocks on the trunk of his car next to a third deputy, who had just arrived on scene.
The third deputy field-tested the rocks, and they tested positive for cocaine, according to the report. The field tests are "presumptive," according to the report, but not conclusive.
A fourth deputy arrived and stood next to Hayden, who consented to a search and emptied his pockets, according to the report.
Hristakopoulos gave Hayden a verbal warning about having an adult riding on his handlebars on a public roadway and told him he was free to go.
Then he arrested Brown, after determining that there was probable cause to arrest him for possession of cocaine and resisting an officer without violence, according to the report.
On the way to the Flagler County jail, Hristakopoulos wrote, Brown “made numerous spontaneous utterances, most of which were not of any great consequence.” He said he was innocent, and that the deputies had only released Hayden because Hayden was white.
When Brown arrived at the jail, he said his handcuffs were too tight and asked Hristakopoulos to loosen them. Hristakopoulos told him jail staff would have to do that, according to the report. But Brown complained repeatedly, and Hristakopoulos asked another deputy to see if a jail deputy cold accompany Hristakopoulos as he loosened Brown’s handcuffs.
Brown then said he didn’t feel well, and Hristakopoulos took him to Florida Hospital Flagler.
Once there, Brown told hospital staff that his left shoulder hurt and that deputies had injured it, according to the report.
Hospital staff X-rayed Brown’s shoulder and found nothing wrong with it, according to the report.
But Brown said he’d take legal action against Hristakopoulos, anyway, as well as the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
Brown was returned to jail after medical clearance, according to the report.
According to jail records, he has been arrested multiple times since 2008 on charges including cocaine possession, resisting arrest without violence, illegally carrying a concealed weapon, shoplifting and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
