INKSTER, Mich. – There are new allegations, backed by new video, that Floyd Dent was mistreated while locked up in the Inkster Police Department.
The new video, obtained by Local 4 Defenders, shows Dent being placed in a jail cell at the Inkster police station. He's seen wiping blood from his head and appears to be in terrible pain. There's no audio but Dent says he was pleading with officers for medical attention.
"I kept telling them I needed to go to the hospital," Dent said. "I begged them please call EMS."
Officers refused Dent any medical attention.
"I'm just sittin there, and everyone is just looking at me like I'm a circus clown," he said, recalling the experience. "[I'm] bleeding like a hog, and then they put me in the jail cell."
Earlier in the evening Dent was pulled over for rolling through a stop sign. During the stop, he was pulled from his car, placed in a chokehold, and punched 16 times by Officer William Melendez. Dent was also kicked and tased three times.
Melendez has since been fired by Inkster Police.
The video of the traffic stop does not show Dent fighting back, and a judge rejected the officers' allegation that Dent resisted arrest or assaulted the officer by biting him. Police say they found drugs in Dent's car and arrested him. Dent was put in a cell and claims police mocked and humiliated.
"These officers just didn't care, and the way they treated me in the police station, they had me stripped down, okay, to my shorts," he said. "They had me lean up against the wall, on the bench on my knees. This is so terrible."
Dent was suffering from four broken ribs, a fractured orbital, and had blood on his brain. He claims, despite asking over and over to go to the hospital, he remained at the station as police took a mug shot and multiple photos to document injuries.
"I'm not a mass murderer, I mean they treated me like I killed 100 people," he said. "And that's when I knew that this was some kind of cover up. They be trying to cover up what they did."
Dent was taken into a processing room where he sat handcuffed and waited patiently to be fingerprinted. The video shows him co-operating completely, but Dent says they were still treating him as a threat.
"I don't know what was wrong with them, to me it seemed like they was on drugs," he said. "The black office told me: ‘Mr. Dent please stop resisting.'"
Dent says it wasn't until he was being taken back to his cell before anyone realized he needed immediate medical attention.
"I heard somebody in the back say ‘I think someone needs to get him to a doctor,'" he said.
That's when EMS was called and Dent was transported to the hospital.
Dent and his attorney claim there is more video, that inkster police provided only an edited version. The police department says it complied fully with the court order and has nothing to hide.
The FBI and the Michigan State Police are investigating the incident. However, at the moment, all eyes are on Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy who is expected to announce Monday if Officer William Melendez will be charged criminally, and if Floyd Dent's drug charge will stand.