Jackson County prosecutors are investigating whether Kansas City police committed a crime by writing false information in a report last year after an officer threw a Black man to the ground, injuring him.
Mike Mansur, a spokesman for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, said Monday the investigation of any false information in the police report is part of an overall review of the incident.
The statement by the prosecutor’s office comes as the injured man, Mack Nelson, 45, has entered into a $500,000 agreement to settle a civil lawsuit he filed against the Kansas City Police Department.
Nelson was filming officers at the scene of an Aug. 8, 2022, police shooting at a gas station near 55th Street and Prospect Avenue when an officer threw him down, forcing his face onto the ground. Nelson briefly fell unconscious and suffered injuries to his body and face, including his eyes and shoulders, the lawsuit said.
Another person captured video that shows the officer throwing Nelson to the ground.
However, a police report written hours later by Officer Alyssa Surges claims Nelson fell to the ground after “jerking his arms away and attempting to twist his body away from P.O. Frazier.”
Nelson’s attorney, John Picerno, said the police officers lied and they could face charges for including false information in their incident report.
Missouri law says a person commits the offense of making a false report, a misdemeanor, if they give false information to any person for the purpose of implicating another person in an offense or make “a false report to a law enforcement officer that an offense has occurred.”
The police report written by Surges describes how Nelson was issued a summons for disorderly conduct, trespassing and resisting arrest.
Picerno said he and Nelson were satisfied with the outcome of the lawsuit, but still want to see charges or disciplinary action against the officers for the use of force and the mischaracterization on the report.
“You may have a different opinion on the use of force or resisting arrest, but it’s obvious to anyone who watches the video he did not fall, and then to submit a police report where they said he fell to the ground — that’s just a flat out lie,” he said.
State law also says an officer can be disciplined if they have “committed any act while on active duty or under color of law that involves moral turpitude” or if they have committed any criminal offense.
Discipline can include counseling, a letter of reprimand, suspension, demotion or termination, according to the Kansas City Police Department’s policy.
Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the police department, said she could not comment on the case because it remains under investigation. The officers involved in the case are currently assigned to the patrol bureau, Gonzalez said.
Chief Stacey Graves, who took over the department in December, has pledged to improve its relationship with the community.
But Picerno said they have not heard of any disciplinary action as a result of the encounter.
“The only way to change the culture ... is to discipline the officers and if you’re unwilling to do that or you won’t do that, I don’t see any reason why it’s going to change or any reason why we can expect their behavior to change,” he said.
Encounter at police shooting scene
After Kansas City police officers shot and killed Zachary Garrard, 31, Nelson and others were asked to remain inside the gas station while officers processed the scene for evidence.
After a while, they were told they could leave.
Nelson later told The Star he was upset that officers had shot someone and weren’t thoroughly questioning witnesses, so he began to take videos on Facebook Live and make comments the officers didn’t like.
According to the lawsuit, Nelson was asked to stay behind the police tape and he complied. Nelson then allegedly walked to an area of the parking lot not marked off with police tape.
Nelson complied when he was instructed to back away, but an officer grabbed him and tried to arrest him, claiming he failed to follow the orders, the lawsuit said.
The officer then tried to restrain Nelson, knocking the phone out of his hand before he forced the man’s face onto the pavement. In Young’s video, he narrates as Nelson, injured, sat slouched over. He was eventually given towels for his head before being put in an ambulance.
Nelson sustained several injuries and was later given a ticket for disorderly conduct, trespassing and obstructing or resisting police. He later pleaded guilty to resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and trespassing.
Picerno has asked a judge to vacate those charges.
Officers’ reports
The report written by Surges claims Nelson fell to the ground after “jerking his arms away and attempting to twist his body away from P.O. Frazier.”
According to the report, Nelson was asked several times to get behind the crime scene tape, but refused to comply. The report was approved by a supervisor a week after the incident.
In Frazier’s account, he alleges Nelson was “pulled onto the ground.”
The other officers were identified in the report as M. Powell, L. Robison and M. Whitelaw.
Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said the inaccurate reports would qualify as a crime.
“While it is concerning that the officers here lied in their reports, it is not particularly surprising or out of the ordinary. Police dishonesty is very prevalent,” Bonds said. “Just look at other high profile incidents of police violence. Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Laquan McDonald. In each case the officers’ statements misrepresented what happened and were disproven by video or other reliable evidence.”
Picerno said the discrepancies between their reports and what was captured on video highlight a problem with police accounts of excessive force incidents.
None of the five officers mentioned in the lawsuit were recording the interaction with their body cameras, Picerno said, with the exception of Surges, who turned her camera on only after the alleged assault.
“It was a huge cover up, we caught them with their pants down,” Picerno said. “But for the bystander video, we wouldn’t have known that they fabricated this police report.”
Steve Young, co-founder of the Kansas City Law Enforcement Accountability Project, a local activist organization, recorded the interaction and agreed with Picerno: Officers lied in their reports.
“The video I took is evidence of perjury,” he said. “ It should be shocking to us all how easy they will lie about their crimes against the community, then turn around and ask the community to help them solve the crime. This is not shocking to me. They literally have no credibility. I hope they are charged for their crimes.”
