Assault trial begins for Baltimore County corporal who pepper sprayed handcuffed man

Cassidy Jensen

The Baltimore Sun

September 10, 2024

After a Baltimore County Police corporal pepper-sprayed a handcuffed suspect in the face, he yanked the man’s hair so hard that two dreadlocks fell out, the man testified in city court Tuesday.

The trial of Cpl. Zachary Small, 52, began Tuesday for his actions related to the Sept. 27 arrest of a 32-year-old man suspected of armed robbery. Small, a 20-year veteran of the department, is charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, violating public safety and misconduct.

“I’ve been in pain before, but I thought I was about to die,” the man testified about the encounter, which began after he fled police custody at Johns Hopkins Hospital and was quickly caught.

After finding him in a nearby backyard, Baltimore City officers handcuffed him and placed him in a squad car. After Small and other county officers arrived, the moved him into a county police SUV, but the man’s knee blocked the door, initially preventing Small from closing him inside, according to body-camera video released earlier this year.

The man then complained he was too hot and couldn’t breathe, and began banging on the car’s window. In addition to the handcuffs, he was wearing a seatbelt and his legs were shackled.

After warning the man, Small shot pepper-spray into the man’s face, including his mouth and nose, “seven to nine” times, then closed the door again, Assistant State’s Attorney Kimberly Rothwell said.

“It was instant fire,” the man said Tuesday. “Instant burning.”

When he resumed banging on the door, Small opened it, grabbed the man and threw him onto the ground, the body-camera video showed.

“He takes his hair as if he’s a dog on a leash, he grabs the roots of this man’s hair,” Rothwell said.

The video shows him gripping the man’s hair and using it to lift his head and neck up off the ground.

“If he could have, he would have killed me,” the man said, comparing himself to George Floyd.

He has hired a civil attorney and plans to file a lawsuit, the man said.

Small did not provide medical aid to the man or call for any, and instead ordered him sent to a police precinct.

Prosecutors say Small’s actions during the arrest violated Baltimore County’s use of force policies and criminal law.

Defense attorneys for Small described the man suspected of carrying out a string of commercial armed robberies as a violent criminal who repeatedly lied to officers.

He’s set to stand trial for armed robbery, theft and second-degree assault in Baltimore County in October. He was charged with second-degree escape in connection with the September incident, but that count was placed on the stet docket, meaning prosecutors can revive it in the future.

Small’s attorney Brian Thompson argued that the late September weather was cool, in the high 60s, not so hot that the man would overheat in the back of the police SUV.

A 2022 training for Baltimore County officers advised using pepper spray when a suspect fails to comply with orders or is physically aggressive, according to a presentation defense attorneys displayed. Law enforcement experts consider pepper spray to be a lower level of force since it doesn’t usually cause lasting injury.

Small’s sergeant initially reviewed his actions and found he had acted within department policy for using force.

Baltimore County Capt. Michael Fruhling, the Wilkens precinct commander, testified Tuesday that he thought the incident was “ugly” when he first looked at the body-camera video, but that he was “okay with it.”

Later, the captain wrote in a Nov. 22 memo to then-Maj. Orlando Lilly that Small’s use of force had been unnecessary. Fuhrling said Tuesday he changed his mind after watching the video more closely.

“I didn’t think when the suspect was handcuffed in the back of a police car it was proportional and effectuating a law enforcement end,” he said Tuesday, both requirements for using force under the department’s policy.

Asked by Thompson if Small’s actions in the arrest had violated the law, Fruhling said no.

A grand jury first indicted Small on an additional charge of first-degree assault, but Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said at a news conference in February that he decided the state would not be able to prove the felony charge.

Three other county officers face charges of misconduct in office for failing to intervene in the incident. Trials for Officers Justin Graham-Moore and Jacob Roos are set for later this month. The trial for a fourth officer, Thomas Desmond, who was indicted later, is scheduled for December.