Police get paid vacations and overtime for gangland-style beating of honors student

by Dr. Q, Cop Block
May. 23, 2011

On the evening in January 12, 2010, Jordan Miles was walking home to his family’s home in Pittsburgh. The 18-year-old studied music at the Creative and Performing Arts High School. He was an honors student and had no criminal record. As Miles was walking, three police officers dressed in plainclothes exited from a parked car. What happened next is disputed, but one thing is for sure: Miles ended up in the hospital.

If you believe the version of the story told by the police, the three officers — Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte and David Sisak — had received a complaint earlier in the evening from resident Monica Wooding that Miles had been loitering on her property. The officers spotted Miles “sneaking around” and noticed that he had an object in his pocket that could have been a weapon. They approached Miles, identified themselves as police officers, and asked him to take his hand out of his pocket. Miles took off, but tripped after he slipped on some ice. They tried to arrest him, but he resisted them violently and they had to use force to subdue him. After arresting Miles, they searched him and realized that the object they thought was a weapon was actually a Mountain Dew bottle.

There are a number of problems with this story. Firstly, Monica Wooding never complained to the police that Miles had been loitering on her property. That was a complete lie. In fact, she testified in court that Miles and her son have been friends for years.

The officers’ claim about the Mountain Dew bottle was problematic too, because the officers never filed it as evidence. It also never existed, according to Miles.

The officers also never identified themselves, according to Miles. They just asked him questions like “Where’s your gun, money and drugs?” — questions that would have suggested that they might have been robbers. Even if the officers did identify themselves as police, it’s hard to fault anyone for running from a group of strangers in the middle of the night.

According to Miles, the officers beat, kicked, kneed, and choked him, repeatedly shoved his face into the ground, and ripped hair from his scalp. After he was in handcuffs, the officers continued pushing his face into the ground, causing his gums to be impaled by a piece of wood. Miles, thinking he was going to die, began praying. An officer told him to “shut up” then began choking him and slammed his head into the snow. Miles continued praying and another officer said “Didn't he tell you to shut up?” and then choked Miles again and slammed his head back in the snow. After the officers had left Miles in the snow for a “protracted period of time,” he tried lift his head off the ground only to be hit in the face with an unknown object by one of the officers.

...Continued