A Fort Lauderdale Police officer who was caught on camera shoving a protester during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest was found not guilty of battery Monday.
Officer Steven Pohorence faced a misdemeanor charge in the May 31, 2020 incident, during a rally after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis.
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The weeklong trial surrounded the cellphone video that showed Pohorence shoving 19-year-old Jada Servance as she was kneeling with her hands in the air.
Pohorence and other officers had responded as what began as a peaceful protest quickly got out of hand, with some demonstrators throwing rocks and water bottles at officers and police responding by deploying tear gas.
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The footage showed Pohorence yelling at demonstrators to stay clear of police, as a number of protesters start kneeling around him. He started walking away and that's when he shoved the protester. The video showed a female officer following Pohorence, apparently objecting to his actions.
Pohorence's defense was that he was in danger and didn’t commit any crime when touching Servance, but that he used a police tactic called a swim maneuver to get past her.
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"Her presence — and her left hand in particular — pose a danger to that officer, who finds himself in very dangerous circumstances surrounded by angry protesters," said Pohorence's attorney, Mike Durko.
Prosecutors argued that Pohorence didn’t have any reason to push her and that he was already in a place where he wasn’t in danger.
"She was on her knees with her hands up when Officer Pohorence pushed her down. That’s no swim move," prosecutor Chris Killoran said. "It doesn’t matter what the defense expert called it. That’s not a swim move, that was a push done out of frustration — done out of anger. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a battery."
