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Officer Philip Dupree, 40, formerly of the Fairmont Heights Police Department in Prince George’s County, was found guilty on Monday, June 17 for abusing a suspect during a traffic stop that was recorded by his victim's sister.
"We depend on law enforcement officers to protect our communities from crimes and to protect our civil rights while doing so,” US Attorney Matthew Graves said. “An officer who abuses his authority breaks the community’s trust and unfairly tarnishes the reputation of the vast majority of officers who do their jobs the right way.
"The jury found that the defendant broke that trust when he unjustly and unreasonably used force and violence against a fellow citizen."
According to court documents, Dupree was on duty early on Aug. 4, 2019, when he spotted a vehicle and conducted a traffic stop on Eastern Avenue NE, just across the DC-Maryland border as the driver and his sister were returning home from a family cookout.
Based on a 911 recording placed by the driver’s sister, Dupree told the driver to put his hands behind his back or he would pepper spray him and Dupree would activate his body-worn camera (BWC) to make the stop “official,” prosecutors said.
When the driver questioned the stop - as he had committed no traffic violations and because the stop was happening in the District of Columbia, not Maryland - Dupree ordered him out of the car, handcuffed him, and placed him in the front seat of the officer's personal vehicle.
Dupree then radioed for backup from a Prince George's County Police Department while the driver's sister alerted the Metropolitan Police Department to the incident during a 911 call.
Officials made note that the MPD officer arrived and activated his body-worn camera, which Dupree never did.
"While the handcuffed driver was seated in Dupree’s vehicle, the driver’s sister sat in the driver’s car, ostensibly to prevent Dupree from towing the vehicle," court documents state.
"After Dupree told the sister that he 'was going to ask (her) one more time to get out of the car,' the sister responded that the car belonged to her brother and that she had a driver’s license.
At that point, the woman continued to refuse to exit the vehicle, prompting Dupree to threaten her with pepper spray while aggressively shaking the canister.
Prosecutors say that while Dupree was engaging with the sister, the handcuffed driver "was seated in the front passenger seat of Dupree’s car yelling obscenities and insults and activating the vehicle’s sirens."
However, the officer from Prince George's County asked the driver to step out of the vehicle, and when Dupree asked for an assist in taking him back to Maryland, the officer refused.
On his own, Dupree then placed the driver - still handcuffed - in the back of his personal vehicle, leading to him beginning to scream, "pleading to have another officer transport him."
Dupree then grabbed his pepper spray, took a step back away from handcuffed driver, shook the canister, and then stepped forward, at which point Dupree pepper-sprayed the handcuffed driver in the face and chest.
Instead of taking the driver to county lockup, Dupree then took him to the Fairmont Heights Police Station and detained him for several hours before turning him over to the jail.
To compound matters, while the driver was held in custody, Dupree drafted a falsified statement of Probable Cause in which he claimed, among other things, that the driver had attacked him.
“Police brutality and violent misconduct against defenseless people are disgraceful acts that have no place in our society today,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said. “When law enforcement officers abuse their power, it erodes trust with the communities they are sworn to protect and serve.
"The victim was handcuffed and already restrained in the back of the defendant’s squad car at the time of the assault."
Dupree was found guilty by a federal jury of deprivation of rights under color of law. When he is sentenced, the former officer will face up to 10 years in prison "for his use of unreasonable force."
"Law enforcement officers swear to protect the people they serve, including those in their custody,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg added.
“Dupree defiled that responsibility and violated a man's civil rights."
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