Rekha Basu

rbasu@dmreg.com

If you only heard Grayson Scogin's version of the events of Sept. 12, you might well chalk that up to an alcohol-compromised memory lapse or an effort to cover up bad behavior. But video footage, especially from a police-car camera, is hard to argue with. What appears on the police video (now on You Tube) from that night does not look good for University of Iowa police.

Scogin is a 27-year-old Iowa National Guard member and part-time worker and student from California. He followed his girlfriend to Iowa as she attends UI law school. The two met in Washington, D.C., when he interned for Sen. Tom Harkin.

Scogin says he had been drinking but wasn't "heavily inebriated" when stopped by an officer at 2:30 a.m. on an Iowa City street. He was making the two-mile trek home from a bar by foot. The tape shows Officer Greg Hall follow him down a sidewalk calling to him to stop. (University police have jurisdiction beyond the campus, a university spokesman said.) When Scogin didn't immediately stop -- he says he didn't hear Hall -- Hall says into his radio, "It looks like we're gonna be running here real shortly." But the video doesn't show Scogin running or even quickening his pace.

When Scogin stops, Hall asks him what he's doing. "I'm trying to walk home," says Scogin, asking, "You mean I'm not good to go?"

Hall says he is not, and that he has pursued Scogin "to see if you were OK after you almost got hit by that car after wandering out in the middle of the street." Scogin denies that happened and the video doesn't show it happen. Several times, the officer tells Scogin to get his hands out of his pockets; Scogin says he's trying to get his ID. He tells Hall he's a soldier -- in an effort, Scogin said later -- to get his respect. Hall says he doesn't care, and to put his hands behind his back.

"What have I done wrong?" Scogin asks.

You can hear but not see the details because it's dark and in the distance.

"Don't fight me," admonishes the officer, who says something into his radio about "fighting," Then he has Scogin on the ground and is shouting at him as another police car pulls up – and then a third and a fourth -- and officers jump out and join them. An increasingly desperate-sounding Scogin repeatedly cries "My hands are behind my head," apparently not understanding the officer wants them behind his back.

RELATED: UI student says arresting officer used excessive force

Scogin said he was "body slammed" to the ground and had four officers on top of him, pushing his face into the concrete. He said he was terrified. He was arrested and held overnight at the police station, charged with public intoxication and interference with official acts. The police report says Scogin "began to pull away from me and had to be placed on the ground." It said he "stepped into traffic and refused to stop for the officer," and was "uncooperative and physically resisted."

That's hard to conclude from the video. Scogin, who has no criminal record, appears scared and confused but not aggressive. When his girlfriend picked him up, she took him to the emergency room, where doctors said he had blunt force trauma to the chest. Scogin said his ribs were so bruised, he had to sit in a chair for five days without moving.

University Spokesman Tom Moore said due to "pending litigation," the university and its police had been advised not to speak of the case, which is curious since Scogin said he hasn't filed any claims and is waiting for the criminal case to be over. His trial, scheduled for Monday, has been postponed to March 6. There's another odd twist: Scogin is of Welsh and French origin but tanned, and told the officer he's white. But Hall listed him as Hispanic on the police report. "'It's like he's claiming ownership of what ethnicity I am," said Scogin, who believes racism was involved.

Scogin and his attorney sent the police video to Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness, expecting it would prompt criminal charges to be dropped. It hasn't. Lyness didn't return my calls or respond to e-mailed questions. A woman at her office said the case "is still under investigation" and "We've been instructed that there's not going to be any discussion of that."

No one would recommend being out drunk at 2:30 a.m. but that alone does not warrant what happened to Scogin. The video is painful to watch because it looks like an unnecessary escalation of force resulting in an unnecessary arrest and injuries. Rather than concern for Scogin, the officer seemed to be looking for provocation to arrest him. Knowing Scogin had been drinking, Hall could have calmly explained what he wanted so the confused and rattled young man could comply.

Such an escalation of minor events is a sometimes fatal pattern we're seeing around the country. Surely officers are trained to recognize the difference between someone who's out to make trouble and someone who's just had a few too many drinks or is committing some small infraction. The more we see, from Missouri to New York to Iowa, the more one longs for the streets to be patrolled by more genuine peace officers and fewer warriors.