The Washington Post
July 29, 1989, Saturday, Final Edition
Charges Dropped Against Man In Fairfax Police Beating Case;
Nightstick Allegedly Rammed in His Mouth
BYLINE: DeNeen Brown, Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: METRO; PAGE B7
LENGTH: 376 words
A Fairfax County prosecutor dropped trespassing and public
drunkenness charges yesterday against a man who had accused county police of
shoving a nightstick into his mouth and beating him after he refused to give
them information about someone else. Raymond F. Morrogh, deputy commonwealth's
attorney, said he decided to drop the charges after police went to him
yesterday and told him that a settlement had been reached with the defendant,
Steve Martin. The details of the agreement were not immediately available.
"It seemed like the fair thing to do, considering what
happened," Morrogh said. Martin, who is black, said he was beaten by white
police officers during the March 31 incident. Disciplinary actions have since
been taken against five officers, not all of whom were directly involved in the
assault, sources said.As a result of that and other recent incidents, some
blacks in the county have accused police of racial bias and the Justice
Department has started an investigation.About three weeks ago, county
prosecutors dropped charges against another man whose case is being
investigated by the Justice Department for possible civil rights
violations.Martin, 27, who is being held on an unrelated charge of stealing a
truck, said from jail yesterday that he had no knowledge that the other charges
had been dropped and planned to sue police for beating him.Martin said that
after the news of the beating spread, police in the county had been harassing
him and he had been threatened by guards in the county jail who were angered by
his charges against the police."They be trying to jump me up here. They
are against me because they against what I'm doing to police on the
street," he said."That's just totally not true," said Fairfax
County Sheriff M. Wayne Huggins, whose department operates the jail. "We have
two separate agencies. My deputies have more to do than to be concerned about
the likes of Steve Martin."Martin pulled down his bottom lip and displayed
a gap where, he said, a tooth had been knocked loose by a nightstick. The
police department had offered Martin $ 1,000 to repair the tooth, but Martin
said he did not know where the offer stood and had gone to the dentist to have
the tooth pulled.