By JIM TUTTLE
Staff writer

A Franklin County state police corporal is scheduled to go to trial April 4 on accusations that he assaulted a handcuffed prisoner.

Judge Carol Van Horn denied Christian Fow’s request to throw out the case Wednesday after a hearing on the matter. One of Fow’s lawyers, Geoffrey McInroy, and the prosecutor, Senior Deputy Attorney General Anthony Forray, presented arguments.

“It’s a shame that we’ve come this far,” McInroy said.

He argued that Fow was preventing Christopher Broadwater from escaping from the back of a police car when he pepper sprayed and hit him in the face. He said that if the case is allowed to proceed, it could have problematic implications.

“The absurd result here is that every time an officer has a prisoner in custody, any time that prisoner gets injured while trying to escape, the officer is subject to criminal liability,” he said.

He said Fow had no intent to injure or inflict pain on Broadwater, only to “bring him back into compliance.”

He said previous testimony showed that another man on the scene told Fow that Broadwater appeared to be trying to get out of his handcuffs inside the patrol car.

“This was a running, uncaged car,” McInroy said. “Broadwater could have taken advantage of it. He could have escaped custody and gotten away with a running state police vehicle.”

Fow, 43, Shippensburg, was charged in October with simple assault and official oppression. A corporal with Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg, he has been suspended from the job pending the outcome of his case.

Magisterial District Judge Wendy Mellott upheld the assault charge and threw out the oppression charge at a Nov. 7 preliminary hearing. Among the evidence expected at the two-day jury trial is about 40 minutes of footage captured by a patrol vehicle’s Mobile Video Recording (MVR) unit.

The footage allegedly shows Fow injuring Broadwater while he is restrained by handcuffs and a seat belt.

“There’s a line you can’t cross as a law enforcement officer. This defendant clearly crossed that line,” Forray said during his argument. “Prisoners have rights also. Nobody should be pepper sprayed, frankly, when they are handcuffed and seat belted.”

Forray said the prosecution “looked long and hard to see if there was a way we could not charge” Fow with a crime. He said that if there was any way to justify not filing charges, he wouldn’t have.

“There was no way that this case could not be,” he said. “It has to be criminally prosecuted.”

McInroy also argued that the prosecution had failed to demonstrate that Fow’s actions resulted in bodily injury for Broadwater. He also contended that any injuries the man suffered were actually “customary” to his everyday lifestyle, “because he’s a scrapper.”

“A boxer gets injured every time he goes into the ring, and so does an individual like Mr. Broadwater,” McInroy said. “He goes into the ring with state troopers. He gets injured. He expects it.”

Forray said the video evidence “speaks for itself” about Broadwater’s injuries. He showed the judge two still frame images captured from the footage, showing Broadwater before and after the incident.

Broadwater was being committed for a mental health evaluation on the day Fow allegedly assaulted him. According to charging documents, other police officers had already used a Taser to subdue him and place him in the car’s back seat outside his Fannett Township home.

The defense pointed out that Broadwater did not testify during the preliminary hearing. He was not in attendance at Wednesday’s hearing, either. The prosecution says it has decided not to call Broadwater as a witness because of his mental health issues.

McInroy suggested that Broadwater’s potential testimony has been omitted because his version of events clashes with how the prosecution would describe what happened.

Special Agent Daniel Hasenauer of the attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations testified that he and Forray interviewed Broadwater in May at the Franklin County Courthouse. He said the meeting was not recorded.

Hasenauer prepared a report based on the conversation with Broadwater and subsequently destroyed his notes from the interview, according to his testimony.

The judge found in favor of the prosecution, ruling that there was enough evidence to take the case to trial. She said “every case has consequences beyond the courtroom” and that the effects of this case “will be as they may.”

“What I heard was a closing argument,” Van Horn said of McInroy’s argument. “It needs to be heard by a jury.”

After the defense’s motion was denied, the judge moved the proceedings into a pretrial scheduling conference. Jury selection was slated for March 12 and both sides agreed to try the case on April 4 and 5. Further pretrial motions are due to the judge by Feb. 29.

Fow’s co-counsel, Eric Weisbrod, said his client was pleased that the trial was scheduled to take place in the near future.
“We’re just anxious to get it in front of a jury,” Weisbrod said after the hearing.

In a previous interview, Weisbrod and McInroy told Public Opinion that Fow believes the charges were initiated in retaliation for his activities as union president for the Chambersburg station.

Fow’s involvement with the union was not raised during Wednesday’s hearing.

Fow’s supporters confronted a Public Opinion reporter in the hallway after the hearing and accused him of “smearing” Fow in coverage of the ongoing criminal case. One woman called the reporter an “idiot” and complained that Fow’s side of the story was not being adequately told.

His attorneys said their client would not be available for an interview until after the trial.
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Jim Tuttle can be reached at jtuttle@publicopinionnews.com or at 262-4754.