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Hurricane Katrina

Students tell of trouble in Big Easy

Two USF students and hurricane relief workers say they saw a beating that was videotaped, then were roughed up, too.

BRADENTON - Two hurricane relief volunteers said they were grabbed and shoved around by at least one federal official in New Orleans after they saw two city police officers beating a man in an incident that was videotaped.

Homeland Security Department officials said they are investigating.

University of South Florida students Calvin Briles and Mike Monaghan said they were walking in the French Quarter last weekend when they came across Robert Davis, whose taped beating was captured by an Associated Press television news crew.

"We couldn't believe it. . . . It was just a bad situation," Briles, 21, told the Bradenton Herald.

Briles of Palmetto said that as law enforcement officers tried to shoo away bystanders, he said, "I want to tell somebody about this."

He said that's when a man wearing a U.S. customs vest grabbed him, threw him against a car, pressed his head against the hood and told him, "It's none of your business."

"I was just manhandled," Briles said, adding that another official also pushed him around. "They wouldn't let me say anything."

Monaghan, 22, of Bradenton said he saw Briles' cell phone fall to the ground as he was being handcuffed and tried to pick it up.

As he did, a police horse "nudged" his head, he said, and an unidentified official grabbed him from behind and accused him of hitting the horse. Monaghan said the official handcuffed and searched him. He said he was soon let go, but Briles remained face-down on the pavement.

Briles said officials listed a handful of charges he would face, including impeding a federal investigation. But no one read him his rights, he said. After checking for a criminal record, the officials let him go, he said.

Upon returning to Florida, the two students reported the incident to federal officials.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Marc Raimondi said Wednesday the Homeland Security Department's inspector general will look into their complaint.

The two city police officers accused in Davis' beating, as well as a third accused of grabbing and shoving an Associated Press TV news producer, have pleaded not guilty to battery charges. Davis pleaded not guilty to charges of public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation.

Briles and Monaghan have a history of volunteer work, according to their attorney and published reports. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune wrote about the two in September, when they were tapped to coordinate legions of relief volunteers after Hurricane Katrina.

Briles, former ManaTEENs president, and Monaghan, former vice president, were sent by Volunteer Florida to open and operate the Volunteer Reception Center in Gulfport, Miss. They joined volunteers from around the state in the effort, the paper reported.

Their attorney told the St. Petersburg Times the two men were on their way home and stopped to relax one night in New Orleans when they witnessed the beating.

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 13, 2005, 08:39:44]