Embattled former Red Bank patrol officer Mark Kaylor took the stand Wednesday afternoon to deny charges that he used improper and/or excessive force in 2014 while trying to subdue Candido Medina-Resendiz and take him into custody.
He said Medina-Resendiz failed to comply when other officers instructed him to get out of the car so he could be handcuffed and taken into custody.
Even after the suspect was knocked flat to the ground, he put his hands under his chest so he could not be cuffed, Kaylor said.
To officers, that meant the suspect might have a concealed weapon that he was trying to get to, Kaylor testified. Consequently, they began following the uses of force they were taught during training, escalating from one level to the next as the various procedures seemed to have no effect on the man’s continuing resistance.
Kaylor said he went to the final phase – closed fist punches to the man’s face – only after seeing that the suspect was trying to attack him by biting his right arm.
Bites are particularly dangerous, he said, since they can spread disease from the attacker to the person bitten.
Besides that, he said, “I just don’t like to get bit.”
Although Kaylor seemed calm and at ease during his testimony, some courtroom observers muttered among themselves and were openly displeased by the proceedings. At one point during the afternoon, one man began shouting angrily from his aisle seat in the courtroom.
Court officers quickly hustled him out of the chamber, and testimony continued. But after that witness was off the stand, the judge sent the jury out of the room and then told those in the courtroom that some members of the audience had been indulging in loud, critical comments as the trial progressed.
That was to end immediately, he said, adding that if violators failed to follow his order they could find themselves charged with contempt.
During the proceedings, expert witnesses disagreed over whether Kaylor was justified in striking blows to the head.
Prosecution witness Detective Jerry Rogers of the Bradley County Sheriff's Office, a longtime instructor with the Cleveland State Police Training Academy, said officers are taught not to strike suspects in the head unless they feel that they are in danger and must defend themselves.
After repeated viewings of the videotape of the arrest, he said, he believes Kaylor could have used other methods to subdue the man and secure his hands so they could be handcuffed.
However, he conceded under cross-examination by defense attorney Lee Davis, the eventual handcuffing of the suspect did not happen until after Kaylor had struck him in the face.
Much stronger testimony came from defense witness Skip Vaughn – a longtime police academy instructor who worked for the Chattanooga Police Department for 36 years – who said he believes Kaylor’s decision to hit Medina-Resendiz in the head was the correct one.
What’s more, he indicated, he would have done the same thing.
“Anytime somebody tries to bite me, I’m gonna hit him,” he said.