FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Fort Lauderdale police officer charged with battery after he was caught on camera shoving a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020 will soon go on trial.
The video shows Officer Steven Pohorence shoving a woman during the time when what had been a peaceful protest in Fort Lauderdale against racial inequality in the wake of George Floyd’s murder turned contentious outside a parking garage at Southeast Second Street and Southeast First Avenue near the Broward County Main Library.
Attorneys for both sides spent Monday arguing over what jurors should be allowed to see and hear during the trial.
Defense attorneys asked a judge to allow one of its expert witnesses, Miami-Dade police Maj. Carlos Gonzalez, who leads the Miami-Dade Public Safety Training Institute, to testify regarding Pohorence’s use of force.
“It’s important for jurors to understand the absolute dangerous circumstances,” Poherence’s attorney, Mike Dutko, said.
Prosecutors argued Gonzalez has his own method of analyzing threats and incidents. He will testify that Poherence was using a “swim move” in a hostile crowd during a hostile situation.
“No other police academies are using this,” a prosecutor said. “There’s no real data to support it.”
The judge ruled that Gonzalez will be allowed to testify in front of a jury.
Pohorence’s attorney argues he did not escalate tensions that day, saying they were already tense.
“My conversations with all of the officers that were present, they were scared to death,” Dutko said. “This was a dangerous, angry crowd that had become agitated.”
The next argument up is whether or not the jury should be allowed to see the part of that video where Pohorence is being reprimanded by another officer, Krystle Smith, on scene after the confrontation.
The trial is set to begin in December.