LAKELAND, Fla — Three officers are still on leave and one man is facing several charges months after a violent encounter with Lakeland police was caught on video.
A month later, in January 2023, the man at the center of the video, Antwan Glover, spoke to the media for the first time. And he recounted what he said led up to his arrest.
"He grabs my wrist and tells me to stop resisting. That fast, we went to the ground," he said at the time.
Glover said he was wrongfully stopped by police while parked in a family member's driveway and claimed he was asked to step out of the car because he had marijuana on him.
"I'm telling you, I have my medical marijuana license, sir," he said in January.
As a result of this incident, Glover and two family members were charged with resisting arrest.
Glover is also facing charges of possession of marijuana and battery on an officer.
"I sat in the back of the police car, and I cried. And I just thank god that they didn't kill me that night. Regardless of what else happened, I'm just thankful that I still have my life," he said.
Two weeks after that press conference, we learned that three officers were placed on paid leave while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Lakeland Police Department investigated this arrest.
But in the months since, there haven't been many updates on the status of this case. So we went to speak to Glover's attorney, Sara Jones.
"I just kept thinking somebody has to help him," she said.
Jones told us she's pushing for Glover's charges to be dropped—but also preparing for a possible trial, where she hopes to point out discrepancies between the police report and what she said actually happened that night.
"There was just a lot of what I call not passing the smell test," she said of the police report connected to Glover's case.
According to the five-page report, Detective Dillon Cornn and Officers Anton Jefferson and Jason McCain were out patrolling in Lakeland just after midnight on December 18, 2022.
It goes on to say that they spotted Glover "slowly rolling" in his car—potentially without a seat belt on—so they signaled for him to pull over.
But according to Jones, Glover's car had already been parked in the driveway of a family member's home.
"He had pulled in, his daughter was in the car with him, her boyfriend was in the car as well and he was just sitting there having a conversation with them," she said, "He sees the vehicle pull up beside him. And it's an unmarked vehicle, so he's sort of wondering, 'Who is this stopping beside my vehicle?'"
"As they approach the vehicle, they say, 'Turn the vehicle off.' And so, he's asking them why but also turning off the vehicle at the same time. They don't really answer him as to why and then they ask him, 'Do you have any drugs in the car? Do you have any marijuana in the car?' And he says, 'Well yes, I have marijuana,'" said Jones.
According to the police report, an officer then tried to remove a satchel from around Glover's neck that had the marijuana in it, but Glover pushed him.
However, Glover's attorney claims her client actually raised his arm to remove the satchel and give it to the officer.
"He says, 'He grabbed my arm.' And I'm telling him, 'You can have the bag; I'll give you the bag.' But the officer is sort of pushing him along the car," she said, "They're like sliding down the side of the car until he gets him on the ground. That's roughly the time that this video starts."
RECOMMENDED:
- Activists demand arrest of Lakeland officers after man punched in the face
- Lakeland officers reassigned as more people allege police use of excessive force
- Lakeland Police Chief requests FDLE investigation over use of force
But Jones told ABC Action News that cellphone video showing the officers punching and tasing Glover while his hands are raised makes it clear that they are at fault in this case.
"His hands are up, back showing 'Hey, I'm surrendering, I'm not fighting you,' and you see an officer just come punch him in the face," she said.
We also showed this video to an independent policing expert and Forensics Studies professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, Dr. David Thomas, who said that moment also caught his attention.
"What struck me is watching them, watching one officer take their fist and pound this gentleman in the head," he said, "And usually when that happens like that, 'Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!' That type of reaction is due to anger."
Like Jones, Dr. Thomas told us the police report left him with questions such as why the punches weren't included in the write-up.
"That part, the using his fist, that was never it was never mentioned. Well, if you hit somebody and you use force and that level of force, it's on the force continuum and that means you should detail why you did it," said Dr. Thomas.
It's also a detail that the Lakeland Police Department's "Protective Action Policy" asks officers to document in their reports.
Another one of Dr. Thomas's concerns is connected to the section of the report that claims Glover put an officer in a headlock while they were "escorting him to the ground."
"Well, if this is an escort to the ground, the headlock could have never taken place. Those two don't jive. If it's done properly," Dr. Thomas said.
Without body camera footage and with two conflicting sides of the story—Dr. Thomas said investigators will have to rely heavily on internal interviews and the cellphone video to determine if this stop should have happened in the first place and if this use of force was appropriate.
"It takes another supervisor. It takes internal affairs to be able to look at the incident and say, 'Yup, this was reasonable and fair for the confrontation, considering what the encounter was,'" he said.
But for Jones, the only "reasonable" thing, in this case, would be for the officers involved to be facing charges instead.
"I think there has to be something that says in order to really, really, really have great policing, everybody has to be held accountable," Jones said.
Jones told us she's also commissioned her own independent investigation into this arrest that she hopes will point out "flaws" in the police department's case. She also confirmed to ABC Action News that there is the possibility of a fourth federal investigation into Glover's case.
Because of their active investigation, Lakeland police told us they couldn't comment on this case, and the local police union didn't respond to our request for comment.
Our station also requested the personnel records of the officers involved to see if they could shed some light on things.
The redacted files that the police department sent over showed hundreds of pages of awards, up-to-date training records, and transfer requests—but not much else.
