Rookie officer has been fired and charged with battery

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s department announced Thursday it had fired a rookie deputy after a disturbing video was released showing him senselessly punching a handcuffed woman already pinned to the wall.

As first reported by JAX4, 31-year-old Mayra Martinez is clearly shown being repeatedly punched by 26-year-old Akinyemi Borisade while she is booked in the local county jail on charges of trespassing and “resisting arrest,” a charge that is often baseless yet added to sway public opinion and increase sentencing time.

The police’s official account is that Martinez was taken into custody after getting belligerently drunk and quitting her job. The report states that she resisted police efforts to handcuff her, trying to “kick and bite the officers.”

The video does show Martinez briefly kicking Borisade twice in the leg, at which point Borisade retaliates by hitting her several times.

“He could have turned her around and held her in a transporting position that they are trained in back over to the location to wait by the door,” said Jacksonville Undersheriff Pat Ivey, “He could have stood there with her, but there was no need to strike her.”

Perhaps more disturbing than Borisade’s behavior is that the video clearly shows three fellow officers, along with another handcuffed suspect, clearly standing by indifferently as the defenseless woman fell to the ground.

At no point in the video do the officers attempt to stop their colleague from repeatedly assaulting a woman already handcuffed, surrounded, and inside the confines of their holding facility.

None of the officers have been charged or face disciplinary action at this time.

To their credit, jail employees brought the video to their superiors, which in turn resulted in Borisade being fired and prosecutors preparing assault charges against him.

The full video can be seen below: