FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Delucca Rolle testified Wednesday in the trial of a Broward Sheriff's Office deputy accused of falsifying records in connection with the teenager's rough arrest.
Deputy Ralph Mackey is charged with one count of falsifying records and one count of conspiracy to falsify records. Both are misdemeanors.
Mackey is one of three deputies charged after Rolle was pepper-sprayed and thrown to the pavement April 18 outside a McDonald's in Tamarac after a group of teenagers had gathered after school to watch a fight.
"There were these girls that were gonna fight," Rolle said.
Rolle said the situation escalated when he attempted to grab a friend's cellphone that had fallen to the ground.
"His phone fell, a police officer came up to me and I told him, 'Don't touch me.' And he pepper sprayed me," Rolle said.
Rolle was arrested after the incident, but the charges were later dropped.
After opening statements concluded, prosecutors showed the jury body-camera footage from the incident.
Rolle, who turned 16 Tuesday, was the first witness for the state called to testify.
Deputy Christopher Krickovich and Sgt. Gregory LaCerra are each charged with two counts of battery.
Prosecutors said Krickovich was the deputy seen on cellphone video slamming the teenager's head to the pavement and punching him in the head, while LaCerra doused the teen in the face with pepper spray.
Mackey is accused of falsifying information in the deputies' reports.
"Ralph Mackey acted lawfully," his defense attorney, Robert Buschel, told jurors. "He was assisting his partners in making a lawful arrest of an aggressive suspect."
Every frame of the cellphone footage is being carefully scrutinized by the jury.
"This case is gonna come down to what you, as the jury, see in the videos happening, and you're gonna compare that with what is written in the report," prosecutor Justin McCormack said.
"This case criticizes Deputy Mackey for not being perfect in that report," Buschel said.
Attorneys for Krickovich and LaCerra have filed motions to dismiss the charges.
All three deputies have been suspended without pay pending the outcome.