Illinois officer acquitted in videotaped beating

PEORIA — A jury has acquitted one of three Peoria police officers charged with beating and shocking a man with a stun gun after a 2008 car chase that was videotaped.

Jurors on Wednesday found Andrew Smith not guilty of official misconduct during the May 3, 2008 arrest of Bryce Scott, the (Peoria) Journal Star reported.

Smith, 31, and fellow officers Gerald Suelter and Jeremy Layman were arrested in March 2009 and charged with official misconduct. Suelter and Layman have yet to go to trial but have both pleaded not guilty.

Police in the courtroom for the sentencing expressed their relief when Judge Glenn Collier read the verdict, and Smith's attorney, Robert Kuzas, thanked jurors.

Smith has been on unpaid leave since his arrest. Police union attorney Sean Smoot said he expects him to soon be able to go back to work.

Smoot also called for State's Attorney Kevin Lyons to drop the charges against the other officers.

Lyons argued that Scott was compliant and that the officers used unnecessary force.

The squad car video shows an SUV being chased before stopping at a stop sign. After a shouted order from a police officer, the driver stuck his hands out the driver's side window.

An officer then opens the vehicle's door and the driver steps out before quickly dropping to the ground and out of the frame. One officer kneels over the spot where the driver appears to be and screaming and moaning can be heard.

Charges weren't filed until Scott filed a civil lawsuit. Lyons said at the time he didn't know about the case before the lawsuit because police hadn't forwarded information to him about it.

Scott is now serving a 15-year term in federal prison after pleading guilty this May to drug trafficking from an unrelated 2009 arrest. The case stemming from his lawsuit remains open.