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November 13, 2002
SARASOTA -- Prosecutors have dropped a misdemeanor obstruction charge against a former Sarasota NAACP president, but his complaint against police still stands.
The State Attorney's Office last week ruled that two Sarasota police officers had no reason Aug. 12 to arrest Walter Gilbert, who had been arguing with his wife, in the first place.
Officers Christopher Childers and Timothy Bain responded that night to a domestic disturbance call minutes after sheriff's deputies, who had arrived first, determined in their report that everything was under control and that there was "no criminal activity."
Gilbert, 50, who was working that night as an assistant football coach at Sarasota High School, was quarreling with his wife, Lisa, 42, in an office by the Ringling Redskins youth football facility. She called 911.
The deputies arrived, spoke with the couple and radioed in that the argument was "verbal only." After the deputies left, Childers and Bain arrived. They were questioning Lisa Gilbert when her husband walked by.
Walter Gilbert said the officers slammed him to the ground without saying anything to him.
But in their reports, Bain and Childers said Gilbert swore at them when they asked him to stop. They said they chased and grabbed Gilbert and that he struggled, so they took him to the ground and arrested him.
"Blood covered the ground where they had smashed his face," said witness Jimmie Rush in his written statement. "At no time did Walter Gilbert resist the police officers."
Gilbert, who needed 28 stitches to his face and suffered a broken leg, later filed an excessive force complaint against Childers and Bain.
The Police Department has assigned a supervisor to investigate Gilbert's complaint against Bain and Childers. The incident also is being investigated by the NAACP, according to the Rev. Willie Holley, president of the group's Sarasota branch.