JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A rookie officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has been charged with battery after he hit a woman while she was handcuffed, Undersheriff Pat Ivey announced Thursday.
Akinyemi Borisade, 26, has been fired, Ivey said.
Video released by JSO shows Borisade hitting 31-year-old Mayra Martinez while she was handcuffed and being checked into the Duval County Jail.
Martinez, a new employee at Scores Bar on the Southside, was arrested at the bar just before 5 p.m. Wednesday, Ivey said. She was charged with trespassing and resisting police.
According to her police report, Martinez was drunk and belligerent when two officers, including Borisade, showed up at the bar to escort her from the property after she quit on her first day of work. She resisted their efforts to handcuff her and tried to kick and bite the officers, the report said.
She continued to kick and fight in the patrol car and was placed in more restraints, the report said.
While waiting to be booked into the jail, Martinez can be seen on the video kicking Borisade in the leg, and Borisade retaliates by hitting her several times.
"He could have turned her around and held her in a transporting position that they are trained in back over to the location to wait by the door," Ivey said. "He could have stood there with her, but there was no need to strike her."
Corrections officers who witnessed the incident reported it to their supervisors, and the JSO Integrity Unit investigated it.
In the video, the corrections officers stand and watch before one steps forward and puts his hand on Borisade. Gil Smith, News4Jax crime and safety analyst, said the surrounding officers could have intervened.
"They could have moved in. One officer did at least walk over and put his hand on the officer to stop him from continuing to punch the suspect. So I'm glad one officer did take action," Smith said. "Now in this particular situation, these other officers do have a person who is handcuffed. So they do have to keep a watch on him, if they engage with this officer no one is watching the prisoner."
News4Jax reached out to the Sheriff's Office about the issue of other officers standing by watching but has not yet heard back.
Smith said the Sheriff's Office did the right thing by releasing the video to the public.
"They moved quickly. They didn't wait for this to get out on social media and then wait for pressure from the public. They reported, the corrections officers reported it. And they did an investigation and made an arrest," Smith said.
Ivey said because Borisade is a probationary officer, he can't appeal his firing, but he can ask for a name-clearing hearing with JSO. If he passes that he would regain the ability to be an officer with another agency.
This is not Borisade's first brush with the law. Back in 2008, when he was 19-yeas-old, reports show he took items into a dressing room from a store at the Regency Square Mall and came out without them and tried to leave the store without paying. The report shows he admitted to doing it. He later pleaded no contest.
According to JSO's website, officers can't have been convicted of any felony, or misdemeanors involving false statement, perjury or domestic violence.