Jordan Miles testifies he did nothing wrong before arrest

            By Bob Mayo

PITTSBURGH —A former high school student said Thursday he did nothing wrong before three Pittsburgh police officers forcefully arrested him more than four years ago.

The former CAPA school honors student said he thought they were muggers when they demanded drugs, guns and money during the incident in January 2010. Miles, who is suing the officers over alleged civil rights violations, told the jurors that he slipped on ice and fell as he tried to get away, then they attacked.

"They set upon him and beat him. They beat him savagely while he laid his face in the snow. He struggled to get up. He struggled to get away, but he never touched them. He never swung at them," recounted Miles' attorney, Joel Sansone, outside the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh.

Bryan Campbell, an attorney for one of the officers, also spoke with reporters during a recess in testimony.

"There's no doubt he used force against these officers. The one officer had to go to the hospital. Today he said he didn't resist, he didn't do anything like that," Campbell said.

Officers Michael Saldutti, David Sisak and Richard Ewing previously testified that Miles resisted arrest and that they thought he had a gun, though none was found. They've suggested they may have mistaken a bottle of Mountain Dew in his coat pocket for a weapon. The officers say they discarded the bottle.  Miles said he never had a pop bottle with him and doesn't like Mountain Dew. On every major point, Miles' testimony and that of the officers is at odds and there were no independent witnesses.

"He didn't know that they were police officers, because there were no badges. There was no 'Pittsburgh police' shouted in a commanding voice. He saw three guys jump out of a car and mug him," said Sansone.

The officers have said they plainly showed their badges and repeatedly called out that they were police.

"That's what's not credible. You have three experienced police officers and he said from the very start of this to the very end, he never knew they were police officers, they never said they were police officers," said Campbell.

Miles testified they kept hitting him after he was handcuffed and that they hit him with a hard object in addition to striking him with their fists and knees.

"So he lay there and he took their beating. Then they handcuffed him. And as he lay with his face in the snow, praying, they beat him because he prayed," said Sansone.

"We find it incredible to listen to his story. That he thinks that three white males driving around Homewood at 11 o'clock at night (were) looking to mug or rob anybody," Campbell said.

Miles, who is black, alleges in his federal civil rights lawsuit that the white officers wrongfully arrested him and used excessive force

The former high school student testified Thursday that he did nothing wrong before the three Pittsburgh police officers arrested and beat him in 2010 as he was walking to his grandmother's house.

Miles testified that he had never before been arrested, played the viola in school and was an honors student.

Miles' attorney introduced pictures taken at a hospital after the arrest that showed his face swollen almost beyond recognition and said examinations showed he could have been hit 14 times in the head. The officers acknowledge kneeing Miles repeatedly and punching him in the head, but they said that was all necessary to keep him from reaching for what they believed was a gun.

After the arrest "it hurt to move just about every part of my body," Miles said.

Saldutte, Sisak and Ewing say many of Miles' facial injuries occurred when he was tackled by Sisak and driven through a shrub, head-first. Miles has insisted he was never driven through the bush and has said the officers ripped locks of hair from his head.

Miles also said he agreed to a drug test at the hospital because he never used drugs. The test came back negative.

A district judge said he didn't find the police version credible and dismissed all criminal charges against Miles. An FBI investigation resulted in no criminal civil rights charges against the officers.

Miles' lawsuit was heard by another jury two years ago, which cleared the officers of allegations they prosecuted him maliciously. But that jury couldn't decide the excessive force and wrongful arrest claims that are the focus of the current retrial.

Miles said that he felt confused and "helpless" at the jail.

"I didn't do anything wrong," he said.