Video: Cop Who Slugged and Kicked a Handcuffed Woman Faces No Charges

By Natasha Vargas-Cooper | May 5, 2015 | 9:40pm

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A Miami Beach police officer, Philippe Archer, with a known history of violence, will only face suspension for assaulting a woman while she was handcuffed in summer 2013. She was not the first person Archer beat up that night.

In the early evening of June 26, 2013, Archer, dressed in plain clothes, responded to a condo concierge’s complaint that a drunk woman, Megan Adamescu, would not leave the condo’s lobby. Archer pulled Adamescu outside and asked for identificaton. According to Archer’s police report, Adamescu was too drunk to get out her wallet with her ID so he began to go rifle through her purse to find it. Archer’s report claims that Adamescu became agitated and started using racial slurs against him.

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A passerby, Andrew Mossberg, 50, who saw Archer restraining Adamescu and going through her purse, thought he was witnessing a mugging. Mossberg used his cell phone to call the police and then tried to intervene. According to the police investigation into the incident, Archer identified himself as a police officer (remember he was in plain clothes) and then punched, kicked, and cuffed Mossberg.

“Apparently that really infuriated him, because he rushed me, kicked me in the head, the left side of the head, and knocks me on the ground,” Mossberg told CBS4 News, “While I’m on the ground he punches me twice, and I’m knocked out.”

When Archer arrived at the police station with Adamescu, a security camera in the station’s parking lot recorded her assault. Adamescu sticks her foot out, either in an attempt to trip Archer or kick his shin, Archer retaliates with a haymaker punch to Adamescu’s head and then a strong kick to her hip. Adamescu suffered a concussion from Archer’s punch.

Archer has three other lawsuits from civilians filed against him. The city of Miami paid $60,000 in a settlement with another man Archer had beaten (pictured below).

Archer’s assault on Adamescu triggered an internal affairs investigation and FBI probe. The internal police report chastised Archer, saying that:

“Your experience, knowledge of rules, policies and proper practice dictates that you knew you should have reported and documented the events at the police station, you knew that taking a photo with a prisoner was inappropriate, you knew you should have properly secured the prisoners, and you knew you used excessive force…Your lack of judgment and your poor decisions defy your tenure as a Miami Beach Police Officer of 19 years…You met this slight woman’s meager schoolyard kick with excessive, unnecessary, and unwarranted use of force.”

Nevertheless, Archer was not charged with a crime. Instead he was issued a four-week suspension without pay, which he will serve two days at a time over the course of several months.

Adamescu and Mossberg have filed suit against Archer.

Images via Miami Corrections

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