APD Officers Charged with Beating, Tasering Handcuffed Man

A Travis Co. grand jury on Dec. 30 indicted two current Austin police officers and one former officer on charges of official oppression in connection with their alleged "mistreatment" of a handcuffed man. According to the department, six-year veteran Officer Christopher Gray, rookie Officer Joel Follmer, and former Officer William Heilman, who resigned from APD last month, got into a struggle with 25-year-old Ramon Hernandez on Sept. 21, after Hernandez left the scene of a rear-end car accident. Heilman caught Hernandez a few blocks away and Hernandez allegedly resisted, causing Heilman to strike him with his Taser. Hernandez was still uncooperative, the officers' story goes, and when officers Gray and Follmer arrived it appeared to them that Hernandez was trying to take Heilman's gun, prompting a "struggle" among Hernandez and the three cops. The officers were eventually able to get Hernandez into custody, and charged him with assault of a police officer and attempting to take a weapon from an officer, both felonies, and for failing to stop and render aid, and evading arrest, both misdemeanors.

However, according to APD, a "standard review" of the incident by supervisors suggested that the officers "may have violated policy," including using force on a handcuffed suspect. Indeed, the officers reportedly punched Hernandez repeatedly on his legs and back, and used a Taser on him after he was handcuffed and lying face down – both violations of department policy on the use of force. After three weeks of testimony, a grand jury agreed and indicted the three officers for official oppression, a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and/or a $4,000 fine. Additionally, the grand jury failed to return indictments against Hernandez on both of the felony charges the officers had filed against him. Gray and Follmer have been suspended without pay; Heilman, who shot 43-year-old Ernest Roberts in the face on Oct. 31, during an altercation inside a North Central Austin duplex, resigned on Dec. 2. "I'm very disappointed we would have a situation like this happen," Assistant Police Chief Robert Dahlstrom told the Statesman last week. "I'm sad for the officers, sad for the department, and sad for the victim."