JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Lawyers for William McNeil Jr. held a news conference on Tuesday in Chicago to address the latest on the case of the viral video of a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office traffic stop that turned violent.
During the news conference, civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels highlighted an angle of the body camera video released by JSO that shows an officer pointing a gun at McNeil after another officer broke his window during the now infamous February traffic stop.
“We knew that we were going to have to provide irrefutable evidence, because the sheriff’s department was silent on that. They only released videos that they didn’t try to corroborate, and that tried to explain away what happened. But because we have a good legal team working... It is clear. It is clear that William McNeil Jr. was not lying when he said the police had him at gunpoint,” Crump said.
RELATED | ‘I was really just scared’: Man punched, pulled from his car by JSO officers in viral traffic stop speaks out | ‘Could have all been avoided’: Jacksonville’s FOP says man punched during JSO traffic stop ‘chose to escalate’
The original video that went viral on social media shows McNeil’s car window being broken by a JSO officer before the officer hit McNeil in the face and multiple officers dragged the 22-year-old out of his car on Feb. 19. Officer D.J. Bowers can then be seen punching McNeil in the face again.
JSO said the image highlighted Tuesday by attorneys showing the officer pointing a gun at McNeil “is not new,” adding that it is a “short snippet from the body-worn camera footage that JSO released last Monday, July 21.” However, Sheriff T.K. Waters did not address that portion of the video when he held the news conference last week.
The police report says McNeil was warned several times and refused to comply. The arrest report does not mention the two strikes to McNeil’s face.
The report also accuses McNeil of reaching for a knife on the floorboard of the car. The knife can be seen in the body camera footage released by JSO; however, none of the videos from the traffic stop appear to show McNeil reaching for anything.
McNeil was told he had been pulled over because he did not have his headlights on during bad weather. It was daylight, and no rain could be seen in McNeil’s video or the body camera videos shared by Sheriff Waters.
“I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over and I needed to step out the car,” McNeil said during an earlier news conference with his attorneys. “I know I didn’t do nothing wrong. I was really just scared.”
The police report says McNeil was warned several times and refused to comply.
Crump said the reason McNeil was really pulled over should be very clear.
“This was a classic case of ‘Driving while Black.’ I applaud William McNeil for keeping his demeanor, his calmness,” Crump said.
MORE | Jacksonville traffic stop prompts questions about drivers’ legal rights
Data appears to support Crump’s theory.
Driving in the rain without headlights is an exceedingly rare infraction in Duval County. But it is less rare if you are Black like McNeil, according to more than three years of traffic-stop data obtained by The Tributary.
“He was never violent. He’s a college student. He’s never been convicted of anything. He’s never even been arrested of anything. But yet, he was treated like a hardened criminal, the way they brutalized him,” Crump said on Tuesday.
Court documents show on Feb. 20, McNeil Jr. made a plea deal with the State Attorney’s Office for his charges. He pleaded guilty to resisting an officer without violence and driving while driving on a suspended license.
Attorneys said McNeil was diagnosed with a brain injury from this incident before seeing the judge for the first time.
The charges involving drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana edibles, driving with no headlights and no seat belt were all dropped.
“How could he enter into a plea when he has a closed head injury. Suffering from a concussion, he can’t even remember his name, and he’s in jail for not having a headlight. Spent two days in jail. So attorney Robinson and myself, we’re going to petition the courts, not only this pursuit justice on civil rights, not just pursuing justice on criminal grounds and trying to get the officer arrested, but pursuing justice to secure his freedom,” Daniels said.
During the news conference, McNeil’s attorneys said they will pursue legal action to challenge McNeil’s criminal conviction and clear his record.
“That criminal record now should not have to follow him. It happens in all cases. They just make up charges and then hope that it goes away. So we’re stopping that with Mr. McNeil. We’re going to fight to clear his name, exonerate him, clear his criminal record, so he can go forward, hopefully with his college degree and be a success,” attorney Sue-Ann Robinson said during the news conference.
Sheriff Waters said JSO is conducting an internal investigation, and Bowers was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of that investigation.
Waters announced the day after the video was released on social media that the State Attorney’s Office did not find that the officers violated criminal law.
McNeil’s attorneys also said they anticipate filing a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of McNeil.
JSO said it would no longer comment regarding the video after McNeil announced he retained lawyers. But News4JAX did reach out to the agency on Tuesday requesting comment.
“Thanks for the opportunity, however, due to pending litigation, we would be unable to speak further on the incident at this time,” the agency responded.
Watch the full video of Tuesday’s news conference below