*In a sentencing address that lasted more than 20 minutes, Judge Vonda Evans of Detroit ripped into 47-year-old William Melendez, the former Inkster, Michigan, police officer caught on video beating an unarmed black man in January 2015.
Melendez received a sentence of 13 months to 10 years in prison Tuesday for his role in the attack of Floyd Dent, a 58-year-old black employee of Ford Motor Co., that occurred last winter during a late night traffic stop in Wayne County.
“The one image [from this trial] that stood out to the court was looking at Mr. Dent in his cell, shaking his head in disbelief of what had occurred to him,” Evans said in courtroom video published by local news station WJBK.
“If his conduct was indicative of what he was thinking, I would have thought this: ‘What crime did I commit, being a black man in a Cadillac, stopped for a minor traffic offense by a group of racist police officers looking to do a nigger?'”
On Jan. 28, 2015, Melendez and his partner, John Zieleniewski, pulled Dent over for an alleged traffic violation. After discovering he was driving with a suspended license, the officers dragged him from his vehicle and onto the ground, where Melendez placed him in a chokehold and punched him 16 times in the head.
Watch the original dashcam video below:
Dent was charged with resisting arrest and drug possession, the latter due to a baggie of cocaine that he alleged the officers planted on him.
The beating — which left Dent’s face and shirt drenched in blood — was captured on a patrol car dashboard camera and went public soon after, prompting a criminal investigation. As he sat in a cell at the precinct, Dent reportedly had to listen and watch as officers made fun of him and cleaned his blood off their uniforms with disinfectant.
All charges against Dent were eventually dropped, and in May, he settled with the city of Inkster for $1.4 million.
Melendez, who was fired from the Inkster Police Department last April, was found guilty in November of misconduct in office and assault with intent to do great bodily harm.
“You were so into your bravado that you forgot the eye of justice was recording you,” Evans told Dent in her sentencing speech. “You knew better. You were better trained than any of those officers out there. You were more experienced.”
Melendez on Tuesday apologized during his sentencing to Floyd and his family.
“I am truly sorry that this has caused undue hardships in your personal work, and if you have any animosity toward law enforcement, that was not my intention,” Melendez said.
Floyd later told WDIV that he had forgiven Melendez, but hoped he would’ve been thrown in jail for longer than a maximum of 10 years.
“If it was left up to me, I would give him 15 years,” Dent said. “All the lying and humiliation and everything he’s done — he’s supposed to be an officer of the law.”
Watch Judge Evans’ full speech below. (After first addressing Mr. Dent and sympathizing with the pressures put on police officers in financially-strapped cities, she begins lecturing Melendez at around 13:41):
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