The tale of the police dashcam video has now helped clear a Bloomfield, New Jersey man who faced a multitude of criminal charges, including eluding police and assault.
Investigative Reporter Sarah Wallace obtained the dashcam tapes, and has spoken exclusively with the 30-year old DJ who was looking at years in prison.
It was quite a turnabout, all the criminal charges against Marcus Jeter have been dismissed, and two Bloomfield police officers have been indicted for falsifying reports, and one of them, for assault.
A third pleaded guilty early on to tampering. It's all thanks to those dashcam tapes. It's the video that prosecutors say they never saw when the pursued criminal charges against 30 year-old Marcus Jeter . In the video, his hands were in the air. He was charged with eluding police, resisting arrest and assault. One officer in the video can be seen throwing repeated punches.
Sarah Wallace: "It this tape hadn't surfaced?"
Marcus: "I'd be in jail."
This video was only turned over by Bloomfield police after Jeter's attorney filed a request for records; at the time prosecutors were insistent that Jeter do prison time.
"The first plea was 5 years," said Jeter.
Jeter says the officers were hitting him and telling him not to resist arrest. "All I keep saying is I'm not doing anything," he adds. "They handcuffed me and one of them hits me in the back." The attorney for Jeter says while showing Eyewitness News the video, "Here a state trooper arrives on the scene and clearly wants no participation in it and that's where one of the officers punch Mr. Jeter in the head after he was clearly placed in handcuffs," said Steven Brown.
As soon as Prosecutors saw this video, they dismissed all of the charges against Jeter.
Interesting to note, an investigation by Bloomfield PD's scandal plagued internal affairs division had found no wrongdoing by officers.
Tell me again who is watching the watchers?
