Providence Officer on trial for Felony assault in "Coma Beating" of Latino Man

From [HERE] The trial of a Providence police detective accused of assaulting a man two years ago starts this week. Detective Robert DeCarlo is charged with felony assault and simple assault in the beating of Luis Mendonca in October 2009. The police beating was captured on surveillance video.

It showed an officer, identified as Det. Robert DeCarlo, kicking Mendonca and striking him with a flashlight. Mendonca's attorney claimed his client was in a coma for two days following the incident.

The video, from the night of Oct. 20, was released on the day Mendonca was sentenced in District Court, Providence, for assaulting two Rhode Island School of Design police officers in connection with that incident.

The grainy, black-and-white video shows a group of police officers struggling with Mendonca in a parking lot off Benefit Street on the city’s East Side while he is lying on the ground near a parked car.

It shows the officers dragging Mendonca from under the car and into the center of the parking lot, after he has apparently been restrained. The video then shows another police officer entering the fray, kicking Mendonca and following up with a number of blows to the victim’s head with what his lawyer says is a flashlight.

The video, which has no sound, ends with a visibly limp Mendonca being dragged by police officers up a flight of stairs leading to Benefit Street.

After the attack by police his attorney said, "he's suffering from a lot of headaches. He's throwing up. His vision is still not there and he's having a difficult time seeing," said attorney Alberto Aponte Cordona. "A guy is beaten by police, brought into the hospital, his family can't get in to see him for several days. They put him under a pseudo name. It's not that difficult to add one and one. [MORE] and [MORE]