Palm Beach County man shares story of his arrest that led to broken clavicle and brain bleeding

By Sooji Nam

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    PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida (WPBF) — WPBF 25 News obtained new body camera video showing the arrest of a man in Loxahatchee Groves back in March, where as a result, Johny Morales Gomez said he suffered from a broken clavicle and brain bleeding.

Gomez had initially faced various charges from the arrest, including battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence. However, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office dropped all of his charges last month.

“For the moment, it’s good,” Lesli Martinez, Gomez’s sister-in-law, translated to WPBF 25 News. She said while her brother-in-law may physically be a lot better, he says he is still in shock.

According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Lee Biastre reported he was conducting a routine business check along the 14000 block of Southern Boulevard in Loxahatchee Groves when he saw Gomez backing into another car. That is when Biastre made contact with Gomez.

Last month, WPBF 25 News first reported a cellphone video showing moments of the arrest.

And in the newly obtained body camera footage, it shows several deputies responding to the incident.

Gomez can be heard saying, “my hand, my hand,” and “what is the problem?” as he was being handcuffed.

In the video, the deputy orders Gomez to calm down in Spanish. Another deputy tells Gomez, “You’re still resisting.”

Moments after, Gomez is taken to the ground.

“He was handcuffed, forcibly thrown to the ground backwards, his head smashed the pavement, at which point he was unconscious. And then another police officer came up with an ASP, extended the ASP, put it under the handcuffs in his arm, and twisted it and broke his clavicle,” John Cleary, Gomez’s attorney, had said in a previous interview.

Deputy Biastre reported that “Mr. Gomez contorted his body, and body checked me” and that “During the takedown, Mr. Gomez pushed his weight back onto me. This caused me to lose my balance, and fall with him.”

WPBF 25 News also spoke with a former FBI agent and now practicing attorney to analyze the video.

“There is definitely some passive resistance,” Stuart Kaplan said. “When you do what we call a ‘leg sweep,’… where you flip someone on their face, we now know that someone will not be able to “break their fall.” And their face will hit the pavement and be the resulting indicator or resulting fact of breaking their fall.”

“It’s a conflicted type of situation for me because I appreciate the predicament that the officer was in, to protect not only his safety but also the safety of the other officers around him. But at the same time, he has a responsibility that if he’s going to do this type of technique leg sweep, he also has to be sure that he doesn’t put the person in peril to be seriously, physically injured,” he added.

WPBF 25 News reached out to the sheriff’s office again for a comment on the newly obtained video, and a spokesperson said their previous statement still stands.

“The arrest was properly documented with an offense report and the application of force was properly documented with a Use of Force report completed by the Watch Commander, who deemed the force both reasonable and necessary. Internal Affairs conducted a review of the incident documented under IR 23-157 in which no policy violations were discovered,” the original statement said.

Gomez and his loved ones say they are taking things day by day.

“It’s really hard because it’s my brother-in-law. And it’s like, I don’t know, it’s weird and in fear, too,” Martinez said.

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