Patel says he didn’t move from spot before he was unfairly attacked.
AB Wire
Sureshbhai Patel, a visitor from India who had come to Alabama to take care of his grandson and help his son and daughter-in-law, but was attacked by a former police officer, Eric Sloan Parker, for no apparent reason and suffered spinal cord injuries which left him paralyzed, testified in court today that he has repeatedly told the police officer that he did not speak English. Patel also said he had not moved from the spot when accosted by Parker, before being unfairly attacked.
The federal government continued its case against former Madison police officer Eric Parker today, trying to show he used excessive force in the takedown of Sureshbhai Patel in February, reported WH News 19.
A neurosurgeon testified on Wednesday that Patel suffered spinal cord damage and needed to have a metal disc inserted in his spine to stabilize it.
Patel testified he’d come back to Madison from India on Jan. 29 to live with his son’s family on a permanent basis. In India, he was a grain farmer and left school in the fifth grade. He moved here to care for his grandson and obtained U.S. residency.
Speaking through an interpreter in court Wednesday, Patel said he went out for a walk, heard police ask him to stop, so he stopped.
He testified that he tried to tell police, including Parker, “No English, India” and point them to the house where he was living. The officers held his hands behind his back, he said, and patted him down. He had a handkerchief and beetle nuts in his pockets, he said, reported WHNT.
Then he was thrown to the ground, Patel testified. He said he hadn’t walked away, as Parker claimed on the videotape of the incident shown to the jury this morning.
Patel said after he was thrown down his legs and arms went numb and he couldn’t walk. Parker can be heard on the videotape at least 10 times, urging Patel to get up. He was eventually transported by an ambulance and later had surgery.
When Patel was questioned on his memory of the encounter and stressed to him that he walked away from officers three different times, Patel insisted he didn’t.
Charles Spence, a veteran Madison police officer, testified the use of force against Patel was unnecessary. The defense pushed back against that claim, noting that police were dispatched after a call from a resident on the street where Patel was living.
The resident claimed he didn’t recognize the man, who appeared to be looking in garages and walking in other yards.
Defense attorney Robert Tuten pushed Spence on the point, noting that police have a duty to investigate such calls.
Spence testified that if a subject doesn’t understand police commands, during a consensual encounter, he may not be noncompliant, only confused.