FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Prosecutors and attorneys have selected a jury for the trial of a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy accused of falsifying records in the pepper-spraying incident of a teenager in Tamarac.
Ralph Mackey, one of three deputies charged in the incident, appeared in a Broward County courtroom in Fort Lauderdale, Tuesday.
Mackey faces two charges of falsifying a police report and one count of conspiring to falsify a police report. All of the charges are misdemeanors.
“There’s no right or wrong answers to these questions,” a prosecutor said. “We just want to hear your truthful, honest answers.”
Mackey did not appear in a viral cellphone video filmed in April. The video captured an altercation between two BSO deputies and 15-year-old Delucca Rolle outside of a McDonald’s restaurant in April.
“If looking at him right now, does anybody have a problem sitting on a case? This is an atypical case. It’s not usual that a police officer is sitting on trial,” a defense attorney said.
The deputies could be seen pepper-spraying the teenager before slamming him to the ground. The deputies involved face battery charges, and their trials will take place on a later date.
“As a prosecutor, my job is to prove, generally, two things,” the prosecutor said in court. “The first thing is to prove that a crime has been committed. The second thing I have to prove is that the defendant, Ralph Mackey, committed that crime.”
The trial is expected to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday and is expected to last between two or three days.
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