alonzo grant outside court.JPG

San Francisco lawyer Charles Bonner (left) with Syracuse resident Alonzo Grant outside the Syracuse Public Safety Building before a court appearance.

(Douglass Dowty | ddowty@syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse man who claimed officers brutalized him after he called 911 to break up a dispute has been vindicated for the second time, this time by the city's police watchdog agency.

The Citizen Review Board found officers used excessive force when they charged 53-year-old Alonzo Grant with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and harassment in a June 28 confrontation at his 105 Hudson St. residence.

A panel found that three officers were untruthful in their handling of Alonzo Grant's case, and two of those three performed a false arrest using excessive force, CRB administrator Joseph Lipari wrote in a letter provided by Grant's attorney Jesse Ryder. Ryder did not comment for this article.

Chief Frank Fowler declined comment this morning. A woman who answered the door at Grant's Hudson Street residence said the family did not want to comment.

In September, the Onondaga County District Attorney dropped the charges against Grant, concluding that Grant did nothing wrong.

Grant is a 30-year employee of St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center who works seven days a week and has been married for the past 28 years. He has no criminal record, his lawyers said.

According to Grant's lawyers, police officers beat him up after he called for help when his daughter and a neighbor got into an argument.

By the time officers arrived at his home, the dispute was over, Ryder said. One officer went inside the house and told Grant to go outside. According to Ryder, as Grant walked down his front steps, another officer charged him without warning. He grabbed Grant in a bear hug and flung him over a railing before putting him in a chokehold as another officer struck him repeatedly with his fist, Ryder said.

Alonzo Grant's lawyers provided this photo of injuries Grant suffered in a June 28 encounter with police.

Grant suffered a concussion, broken nose and cut lip, said Charles Bonner, a San Francisco-area civil rights attorney also working on his behalf.

Grant's lawyers claimed that police fabricated their version of events, in which they claim Grant tried to grab an officer around the waist and tackle him, and behaved aggressively toward police.

The DA's account of what happened states that officer Damon Lockett attempted to arrest Grant for disorderly after he slammed a door. Lockett tried to grab Grant, resulting in the two of them falling over a railing onto the ground, the DA's office said. Then, officers Lockett and Paul Montalto struck Grant in the face and head several times, the DA's office said.

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