Former D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey took the stand in federal court Thursday to testify that he did not order the arrests of 400 protesters at Pershing Park in 2002 and did not know what happened to the missing evidence from the event.
Ramsey, now commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department, remained calm under questioning from Magistrate Judge John Facciola and plaintiff attorney Jonathan Turley. Facciola has been charged with investigating whether police intentionally destroyed key evidence in a civil suit filed by the 400 arrestees, including dozens of bystanders and members of the media, who were swept up and hog-tied. Ramsey admitted his officers should have issued warnings before arresting the demonstrators, but he didn’t know what happened to the log sheet that could have revealed who ordered the arrests.
