JEANNETTE, Pa. — New video of an arrest is now at the center of accusations of excessive force and a fight to get charges thrown out.
The man in that video, James Grady, says police busted down his door in the middle of the night, and they weren’t looking for him.
A judge is in the process of reviewing police body camera video to decide whether charges will be dropped for a Jeannette man.
That man claims he was caught in the middle of another man’s arrest.
“You can see from the video the kind of physical interaction that occurred. But Mr. Grady assured me that, if they would have simply asked him some questions, it wouldn’t have been necessary,” Assistant Public Defender Devin O’Leary said.
In body camera video obtained by Channel 11, you see state police kicking through the door of Grady’s home at 3 a.m. in late July.
Police got a search warrant for Grady’s home after they traced a car accused of hitting and killing 19-year-old Jayden Lynch to that address in Jeannette.
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State police later determined Grady’s roommate, William Sever, borrowed his car that evening and was hiding in an upstairs bedroom.
Sever is now in the Westmoreland County Jail, charged with Lynch’s murder.
Grady is charged with resisting arrest, but his attorney filed a petition to get that misdemeanor thrown out.
“He did present to the hospital later that day with a fractured vertebra, six broken ribs, a lacerated liver and contusions to his face and nose. Those didn’t happen by accident, and he certainly didn’t do those to himself,” O’Leary said.
According to state police, their actions were justified because officers asked Grady to stand up several times, and he refused to put his hands behind his back while being arrested. Eventually, state police say, Grady walked out of the home on his own and didn’t report any injuries.
“I hope that the case is dismissed and that Mr. Grady is allowed to go on with his life because, based on what I saw in the video, he shouldn’t end up with a criminal record because they decided to kick his door in at 3 a.m.,” O’Leary said.
Channel 11 will let you know what Judge Kreiger decides about whether the charges will be dropped.
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