Two Baltimore police officers pleaded guilty Tuesday to assaulting a Morgan State University employee after a discussion about race turned violent inside a Federal Hill pizza shop.
But the victim, Akhenaton Bonaparte IV, 41, said he was dissatisfied with the punishments handed down to the officers, who were sentenced to a year of probation.
“If I would have beat these guys up, there would be hell to pay,” Bonaparte said, adding that he considered the prosecutor?s office “incompetent.”
Former Officer Jack Odem entered an Alford plea to three counts of second-degree assault, and Officer Mike Brassell, who is suspended, did the same to one count of second-degree
assault, according to prosecutors.
The Baltimore Police Department would not comment.
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Robert Kershaw sentenced each man to one year of probation. Brassell also must complete an anger management course, the judge said.
An Alford plea means a defendant maintains his innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.
Bonaparte said he and two female friends were discussing a book, “The World?s Great Men of Color,” in Maria D?s Restaurant on Light Street on Oct. 23, 2005, when Odem and Brassell entered, heard their conversation and began an argument.
“They didn?t like what I was talking about,” he said.
He said the officers, who he believes were drunk, called him a “racist” and used the “N-word” and the “B-word.”
In an interview, Bonaparte admitted he struck an officer in the face but said it was self-defense.
He said the officers, who were off-duty and did not identify themselves as law enforcement, pushed him down and choked him. He said they also assaulted his two female friends, who were 17.
Bonaparte said racism and bias played a part in why the officers are not going to jail.
“I?m black. I?m articulate. I?m dissatisfied. I?m disgusted with the entire legal system,” he said.
Attorneys for either officer could not be reached for comment.
One of Bonaparte?s two friends, Patrice Shelton, 19, said she too was dissatisfied.
“It was not fair,” she said. “Now my daughter has to grow up in a world where she can?t trust her own judicial system.”
Joseph Sviatko, spokesman for the Baltimore City State?s Attorney?s Office, said prosecutors took Bonaparte?s allegations “very seriously.”
“In the final analysis, these two defendants now have criminal records and are on probation. … Justice has been served.”
