A former Maryland police officer was convicted of violating a man’s civil rights, authorities said.
Getty Images/istockphoto
A federal jury found a former Maryland police officer used excessive force when he pepper-sprayed a driver in the face after pulling him over for suspected speeding in 2019, according to prosecutors.
While a Fairmount Heights Police Department officer, Philip Dupree lied about the man trying to attack him to cover up what happened during the traffic stop in Washington, D.C., prosecutors said.
However, two other officers on the scene, as well as the man’s mother and sister, witnessed Dupree pepper-spray him without reason, according to court documents. The man wasn’t a threat, and was inside Dupree’s patrol car in handcuffs, at the time, a trial brief says.
He had been shouting “obscenities” at Dupree over the traffic stop, but this was “common behavior among” people being arrested, trial attorney Sanjay Patel, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, wrote in the filing.
Dupree “pepper sprayed (him) as punishment for mouthing off,” the trial brief says.
Before the August 2019 incident, Dupree was fired twice from two other Maryland police departments for misconduct allegations, including excessive force, court documents show.
A conviction
Dupree, 40, was convicted of one count of deprivation of rights under color of law on June 17 in connection with the traffic stop, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced in a news release.
He was also charged with one count of tampering with a witness, obstruction of justice, but the jury found him not guilty of this charge, court records show.
Dupree’s attorney Christopher Macchiaroli told McClatchy News on June 18 that “Although repeatedly called a liar by the Government throughout his trial, Officer Philip Dupree is thankful to be acquitted by the jury of obstructing justice.”
In an emailed statement, he said Dupree will continue to defend his use of “appropriate force.”
What happened during the traffic stop?
The early morning of Aug. 4, 2019, Dupree “spotted a speeding vehicle” driven by the man, who had left a family cookout with his sister in Maryland and was heading home, prosecutors said.
The driver questioned Dupree pulling him over because the stop happened in Washington, D.C. near the Maryland border, and maintained he didn’t commit any offenses, according to prosecutors.
“From the beginning of the traffic stop, (Dupree) failed to follow proper police procedures,” Patel wrote in the trial brief.
A 911 call placed by the driver’s sister, in which she reported Dupree’s “aggressive behavior,” recorded Dupree’s threat, according to the filing.
Dupree then handcuffed the man behind his back, placed him in his police car and called for backup, according to prosecutors.
Prince George’s County Police Department responded to Dupree’s call, while a DC Metropolitan Police Department officer arrived in response to the 911 call, the trial brief says.
With the MPD officer’s body camera turned on, Dupree threatened to pepper spray the man’s sister, who refused to get out of the car, according to prosecutors.
As she told Dupree “that the car belonged to her brother and that she had a driver’s license,” Dupree began “aggressively shaking his canister of pepper spray,” prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, her brother was shouting and insulting Dupree from inside Dupree’s car and activated the vehicle’s sirens, according to prosecutors.
After the Prince George’s County officer had him step out of the vehicle, the officer declined Dupree’s request to help him take the driver to Maryland, prosecutors said.
Dupree was “frustrated by the lack of assistance” and “placed (him) back into the front passenger seat of his vehicle,” the trial brief says.
Minutes before Dupree pepper-sprayed the driver, the man’s mother arrived and started filming with her phone, according to the filing.
As the driver was screaming and “pleading to have another officer transport him,” Dupree pepper-sprayed him in the face and chest, according to the brief.
His mother exclaimed: “Oh, he sprayed him for just talking! And he’s handcuffed! He sprayed him for no reason,” according to the trial brief.
Patel wrote in the filing that “(she) was correct.”
Afterward, Dupree drove the man to the Fairmont Heights Police station and held him there for hours before taking him to the county jail, according to prosecutors.
At the station, Dupree wrote a false statement of probable cause, accusing the driver of attacking him, prosecutors said.
Macchiaroli told McClatchy News that Dupree “discharged one shot of OC spray in order to prevent himself from being assaulted.”
He said the driver was trying to put Dupree’s “police vehicle in drive,” trying “to leave the vehicle” and escape his handcuffs and was ”repeatedly kicking inside the police car while verbally threatening and berating officers.”
Charges that were filed against the man as a result of Dupree’s probable cause statement were later dismissed, according to the trial brief.
Dupree is facing up to 10 years in prison, according to prosecutors, who said his sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.