Tourist considers lawsuit after rough arrest captured by Fort Lauderdale police bodycam

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    FORT LAUDERDALE (WFOR) — A Pennsylvania tourist says he is considering a lawsuit after Fort Lauderdale police bodycam video appears to show an officer beating him during an incident back in February.

Francisco Moore was with his fiancé Tracey DeJesus and two others celebrating his birthday at the Warf. After an incident inside, police said they were trying to detain Tracey. It wasn’t long after when the trouble began.

“Mr. Moore was holding Tracey’s hand, which Tracey goes toward what got her attention, Mr. Moore’s arm is pulled and when his arm is pulled with Tracey, Officer Paul takes that opportunity to grab Mr. Moore’s arm and sucker punch him,” said Moore’s attorney Gustavo Frances.

Moore said he didn’t know what was going on, that he was trying to leave with Tracey and no one told them they couldn’t go.

“He never said we were being arrested for anything, never said we were being detained,” said Moore, “I was just trying to leave.”

Then it escalated into Moore being punched in the face multiple times, as seen on police bodycam video supplied by Moore’s attorney. He said Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Alexander Paul was delivering the blows.

“Next thing I know I’m laying on the floor again, beaten,” Moore said.

“Mr. Moore is on the ground in the fetal position, security staff and police are administering a pretty substantial beating, knees, elbows, fists, and Paul is at Mr. Moore’s head, he has to strike him 8 -10 times,” Frances said.

In the police report, Paul told a different story than Moore. He said while dealing with someone else, “Francisco ran up to me and punched me in the head and face…”

Paul said when he tried to restrain Francisco Moore “…we both fell to the ground with Francisco on top of me in a dominating position.” He said after he got Moore off him officers were struggling to cuff him and he “…delivered several diversionary strikes (open-closed fist) to his face/head area.”

Moore and his attorney say the video and police report do not match up.

“That definitely wasn’t true. As you can see from the video that’s far from the truth. I was just trying to leave,” Moore said.

“It’s the stuff that you see on TV, movies. He got framed. You look at the police report, it says he punched a cop in the face. It didn’t happen. It’s an absolute falsity,” Frances said.

Police released their own body cam video late in the afternoon.

Paul claims Moore called him a racial slur, his attorney denies it. In a video released by police, we hear him use the N word. “I’m good, n****r, I’m good,” Moore can be heard saying. “Watch your f*****g n****r person, watch your f*****g mouth. I’m not the one,” the officer said.

Fort Lauderdale police said Moore’s version of the incident is inaccurate. The whole thing is under review by Internal Affairs, but police said Paul is not the subject of the investigation.

Police said there are 74 “Use of Force” incidents that Paul self-reported over his six years on the force. The department concluded that all of them were justified.

Paul was involved with an “officer-involved shooting” incident in 2019. It is under review by the State Attorney’s office, which police tell us is standard procedure.

Paul remains on full and active duty at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

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