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Officers found not liable in civil rights case

10:41 PM CDT on Thursday, March 27, 2008

By JESSICA VESS
KVUE News

An Austin police officer and two former officers are found "not liable" in a Federal Civil Rights case.

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Officers found not liable in civil rights case
03/27/2008
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After four hours the six panel jury ruled that Officer Chris Gray and former Officers Brad Heilman and Joel Follmer used the right amount of force in an arrest back in 2005.

“The camera only picks up one point of view, you're only seeing one angle as opposed to everything that's going on,” said George Vanderhule, President of the Austin Police Association.

Dashcam video of the night the men arrested Ramon Hernandez was shown to the jury during the civil trial. The Austin Police Association praised the jury for looking past the video.

“There's more to a case than what they see in just a short video clip,” said Vanderhule.

However, the Texas Civil Rights Project says what’s shown in the dash-cam video makes it clear that Hernandez was actually a victim during the arrest.

“The kid is on the ground. He's clearly constrained and you see a period of time when nothing is happening until officers gratuitously start to beat him repeatedly and brutally and why an jury would believe that sort of non-sense that they're told is beyond me,” said Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project

The police video shows the men punching Hernandez repeatedly during the arrest. Hernandez is on the ground, handcuffed.

“I still forgive them for their actions, you know I forgave them and that's not going to change, but I'm not going to forget,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez filed the civil suit against the men claiming his rights were violated.

“I felt it was kind of my duty. Since I survived the event and I didn't, you know I lived through the event. It was a horrific event, but I survived,” said Hernandez.

After Thursday's ruling the jury left the courthouse without a word. The men were already found not guilty in a criminal trial in 2006.

“The justice system works when you let it,” said Officer Gray.

All three men were disciplined by the APD Chief of Police at the time of the incident. Follmer is now working as a security guard. Heilman, is moving to Waco and plans to go to law school at Baylor University. Officer Gray remains on the Austin police force. Despite the verdict, Hernandez says he would go to court again to stand up for his rights.