A metro Atlanta police division arrested a paraplegic man confined to a wheelchair after a girl with a historical past of mendacity to police accused him of kicking down her door and assaulting her.
Charles Learn, who has been paralyzed for 25 years from a bullet that broken his backbone, confirmed up on the Faculty Park Police Division final month hoping to clear up the false expenses towards him.
Whereas attempting to resume his passport earlier this yr, Learn says he realized {that a} warrant for his arrest had been issued after Katherine Jensen, a girl he had dated a long time in the past and hadn’t seen in 20 years, known as police on June 15, 2024 and instructed them he had simply kicked down her door, choked her, after which fled on foot after attempting to steal her automotive keys.
Apart from his bodily limitations that made such actions unattainable, Learn was at a cocktail party with associates on the evening of the alleged incident, he says.
He contacted Faculty Park Police Officer Markenley Belotte, who responded to Jensen’s crime report final yr, to set the report straight. After corresponding with him through e mail for a couple of weeks, Learn says he agreed to fulfill Belotte on the police station to finish some paperwork.
Belotte’s bodycam video exhibits Learn’s shock on March 20 when, as he sat in his wheelchair within the foyer of the police station, the officer approached and browse him his rights, questioned the origin and extent of his paralysis, after which instructed him he was going to arrest him and take him to jail.
“In line with Ms. Jensen, on this date, you forcefully entered her house and attacked her,” Belotte stated.
“I definitely didn’t drive my means into anyone’s home,” a shocked Learn replied, and reiterated that he had been paralyzed from the chest down since 2000, was married, and hadn’t seen Jensen in a few years. “That is loopy to me … Is that this a joke?”
Impervious to his protestations, Belotte then handcuffed Learn’s wrists as he warned that he had no muscle management to carry himself upright, and promptly fell out of his wheelchair onto the ground.
Belotte known as for a paramedic after which stood by and talked with one other officer about the right way to proceed with the arrest for 3 and a half minutes as Learn lay on the ground, requesting help.
“They only watched me writhe on the bottom,” Learn instructed Atlanta Information First (ANF).
Two officers ultimately helped an exasperated Learn again into his chair, who complained that he may have damaged his hip or produce other inside accidents and never be capable to really feel it.
At this level Belotte, a rookie who graduated from the police academy in October 2023, sought some recommendation from his superior officers.
One officer whom Belotte checked with after strolling down a hallway and into one other room stated of Learn, “It’s a ruse, man. It’s an apparent try to not go to jail.” He reasoned that if Learn may drive and wheel himself into the police station, he may break right into a home.
However one other supervisor, Sgt. Harvey Dorsey appeared extra involved concerning the arrest in progress after getting a take a look at Learn in his wheelchair.
“We’re gonna due our due diligence, as a result of when you’re paralyzed, anyone should have made a mistake,” he instructed Learn. Then, speaking privately with Belotte, he stated that Learn’s withered legs regarded much like limbs of a few of his family members who had been paralyzed, lending credence to his account.
“I’d recommend calling the district lawyer’s workplace, allow them to know what you bought … as a result of if the door was kicked in, he didn’t kick it in,” Dorsey instructed Belotte, who replied, “As a result of now it’s trying like she might need made a false report.”
Data obtained by ANF present that Jensen was arrested in 2023 by close by Newnan, Georgia police for theft, forgery, and submitting a false police report after telling police that Airbnb company stole her property. This was info obtainable to officers in a statewide database, however not talked about within the Faculty Park police incident report, Learn’s lawyer, Andrew Fleischman, stated.
Whereas speaking with officers on the police station, Learn repeatedly supplied to offer paperwork establishing the severity and timeline of his paraplegic situation. However Belotte insisted he should transport him to the Fulton County Jail to be processed, and that Learn would want to spend not less than one evening there till he may bond out and later plead his case to a choose.
A U.S. Justice Division investigation discovered final yr that the Fulton County Jail is overcrowded, unsafe, unsanitary and doesn’t present sufficient well being care to its inmates, with circumstances so dangerous they violate the Structure and the Individuals With Disabilities Act.
Learn defined that as a paraplegic with extreme scoliosis, he had complicated medical wants, and that being put right into a police automotive and even an ambulance with out his personalized wheelchair may trigger him harm. He pleaded with officers to discover a approach to keep away from or decrease his time on the jail, and to let him make his case to a choose.
“How can we do that in a means that protects my physique?” he requested.
A feminine officer then stepped in and instructed Learn he may come again to the police station and switch himself in at 3 a.m. to shorten his time in custody, however that nothing may very well be carried out to keep away from his arrest and detention.
“I’ve by no means seen a case the place anyone was so clearly harmless, and it might take so little work to ascertain it, and no person was prepared to do the work,” Fleischman stated.
Final week, Jensen despatched an e mail to a Faculty Park police detective recanting her accusation towards Learn.
“My psychological state and bodily trauma in that second labored to confuse me,” she wrote within the e mail obtained by ANF. “Please contact me… so I can edit the data within the report and clear the title of an harmless man.”
Fleischman stated {that a} Fulton County District lawyer instructed him this week that the arrest warrant towards Learn was dismissed and that the fees could be dropped by the prosecutor.
Jensen has not been arrested for submitting a false police report in Learn’s case, ANF reported.
The town of Faculty Park, which Learn stated has not but apologized to him, issued an announcement saying it’s “presently trying into this matter with care and consideration. We perceive the significance of resolving this case and admire your persistence as we conduct a radical investigation.”
