

"I knew the camera system was capturing everything the entire time. It knew everything that happened. I told him, 'You just messed up. You have no idea how bad.' He told me to 'shut up.'"

That's the conversation 47-year-old Larry Faulkenberry had with an officer of the Caldwell County Sheriff's Department after being leg-whipped to the ground and roughed up by three deputies in January 2015. Faulkenberry was tossed in jail for 10 days and held on $807,000 bail. He was staring down years in prison for assaulting a cop, resisting arrest, and other charges.

That's the story Faulkenberry told Ars in a recent telephone interview. The incident took place in a rural county of 40,000 just south of Austin, at the five-acre property where Faulkenberry runs a motorcycle parts shop.

The police report by Deputy Michael Taylor, however, claims Faulkenberry wasn't the victim. Taylor asserts that Faulkenberry attacked a deputy.

"I observed Lawrence Faulkenberry push Sergeant Yost with the left side of his body and elbow into a tree causing him to fall and injure his left shin and right knee cap. I observed Lawrence Faulkenberry to forcefully resist Deputies while attempting to lawfully detain him for officer safety. Deputies detained Lawrence Faulkenberry using the least amount of force necessary to gain compliance from Lawrence Faulkenberry."

But a secret video is closer to Faulkenberry's version of events.

Thirty feet away from the melee was a Samsung home security video camera Faulkenberry had fastened to a utility pole years earlier. It captured police arriving in response to a bogus call from Faulkenberry's 16-year-old son. The teen, angry that his dad had grounded him for problems in school, told police his father was drunk and waving a firearm. The video shows Faulkenberry with his arms raised and no weapon in sight. While the officers begin to handcuff him, one deputy kicks Faulkenberry's leg out from under him, after which Faulkenberry is thrown forcibly to the ground and struck at least once in the back, according to the video.

The video was enough for Caldwell County District Attorney Fred Weber to decline to press charges against Faulkenberry.

"Absolutely" was his response when Ars asked Weber if the video was what prompted him not to prosecute.

The video (which contains no audio) has not led to the officers being disciplined or charged for allegedly falsifying police reports. Weber declined to comment on that. The Caldwell County Sheriff's Department did not return messages left by Ars.

"Without the video I would be in prison. There is no doubt about that," Faulkenberry said.







The incident has sparked a federal civil rights lawsuit, (PDF) which also accuses the police of unlawfully searching Faulkenberry's property for a weapon that was never discovered. "I don't have one," Faulkenberry told Ars. The suit names the three officers shown in the video: Sgt. Dustin Yost, Deputy Michael Taylor, and another officer identified only as Deputy Houseston. On Friday, both sides in the case told (PDF) a judge presiding over the case that "mediation would provide a forum to attempt meaningful efforts to accomplish resolution of this case."

But for the moment, the sheriff's department is sticking with Taylor's story. (PDF)

Defendants specifically deny that they violated Plaintiff’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights or any other rights under the United States Constitution or the laws of the State of Texas. Specifically, Defendants deny that they used excessive force and unreasonable seizure, fabricated criminal charges, unreasonable search—warrantless search of property as alleged in paragraphs 29 through 32.

Faulkenberry, who says he has arrest priors of driving under the influence and for speeding, agrees with the police report that he used profane language, and admits that he didn't follow their orders to walk backwards toward them.

"They yelled 'sheriff’s department.' What do you need? I put my hands up. 'Turn around and walk backwards.' I'll stand here, you come here and put handcuffs on me," Faulkenberry said.

"Why the fuck y'all here?" Faulkenberry recounted himself saying. "Before I could finish the sentence, I got slammed to the ground."

He said one of the officers rubbed his forehead on the gravel driveway, causing major forehead abrasions. A punch burst blood vessels in his left eye. "My whole face was cut up and lacerated from rocks in the parking area. My knee hurt for about a couple of months from where he planted me on the ground," Faulkenberry said.

He said he suffered a herniated back disc and another is "bone on bone."

"They left me laying on the ground for about 15 minutes, face down," he said.

He conceded that the whole ordeal could have been avoided had his teen-aged son not called the police.

"He got in trouble at school. I explained to him he was grounded. He got upset. He told me he was going to call the police and tell them I was waving a gun at him and drunk. I sat down to cool off and 20 minutes later, I see flashlights coming up the driveway," he said.

Did he assault an officer that night?

"If you watch the video, absolutely none of that occurred," he said. "I never touched the guy. That was a complete fabrication."

He said he installed four cameras a few years ago after his motorcycle parts shop was vandalized.

"The police suggested a surveillance system," he said. "If the guy comes back again, you’ll have it on video."