Father of Columbus officer in alleged police abuse video serves on public safety advisory board
An online video of a police officer punching a handcuffed suspect is spurring an effort to give Columbus’ Public Safety Advisory Commission the authority to investigate such incidents.
The Columbus police officer in the video is the son of one of the commission members.
This revelation some city leaders were unaware of is adding an undercurrent of controversy to an issue already sparking strong emotions — the question of whether Columbus Council should give the commission subpoena power to probe police complaints of excessive force.
The councilor pushing that proposal, District 1 representative Jerry “Pops” Barnes, has cited the video as his primary motivation.
Police have confirmed that the officer depicted in the police body-camera video posted to Facebook is Cpl. Clayton Watkins, and that his father, Donald Watkins, is the council District 5 representative on the 11-member advisory commission appointed by the mayor and 10 councilors.
The footage shows Watkins telling a pedestrian to stop standing in the road at Wade Street and Sheridan Avenue, off Benning Drive. When the man refuses to step to the side of the road, Watkins handcuffs him and tries to get the man to unclasp his left hand, but he will not.
The recording shows Watkins punching the man from behind, putting a Taser to the back of his head, and throwing him to the pavement, where Watkins punches him again.
Watkins is white. The unidentified suspect is Black.
Barnes was outraged. “I don’t want any citizen to take a beating like that,” he told the Ledger-Enquirer, adding he felt Mayor Skip Henderson misled him by describing the officer’s actions as “a little aggressive.”
This is what drove him to propose giving the commission more oversight power, he said: “I would not have taken this position had I not been lied to.”
He thought Watkins should have been fired.
Police said the officer initially was suspended without pay for six days, though the timing of that suspension was unclear Monday.
When the video initially was posted to Facebook also was unclear, but it got city leaders’ attention, prompting a meeting between the mayor and Police Chief Ricky Boren. After that, Boren requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe the incident, the chief said.
Because the investigation is ongoing, the video now is considered evidence that is not subject to the Georgia open records act, so the Ledger-Enquirer can’t obtain a copy through an open records request, said City Attorney Clifton Fay.
Hired June 23, 2014, Watkins currently is on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of the GBI probe, according to the city’s human resources department.
“This guy is home,” Barnes said. “He should have been fired. He wasn’t fired. He’s going to be back on the street.”
The timing
The video is from October 2019. During council’s July 28 public hearing on his proposed ordinance giving the commission the power to subpoena witnesses while probing complaints of police misconduct, Barnes said he saw the footage after Columbus resident Justin Allen posted it to Facebook.
Allen, who spoke at the public hearing, said what he posted was his phone’s screen shot of the recording, which community activist Gadget Jackson posted first. Jackson was a leader in Columbus’ recent protests against police brutality and racial injustice following the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
The time stamp on the video indicates it’s from Oct. 18, 2019. That would have been two weeks before District 5 Councilor Charmaine Crabb reappointed the officer’s father to the Public Safety Advisory Commission on Nov. 1.
“Oh, I didn’t realize that was his son,” Crabb said Monday, when told of the connection. “That would have made me think twice about reappointing him.”
Mayor Henderson said he also was unaware of the relationship. Barnes said he didn’t find out until July 28, the same day council held a hearing on his proposed ordinance.
Though the connection is coincidental, Barnes’ appointee to the advisory board, former police officer Byron Hickey, said Donald Watkins did not disclose it when the board discussed the incident during a June meeting, held online through Zoom.
Hickey told the Ledger-Enquirer that Donald Watkins asked what the suspect did to provoke the officer.
Donald Watkins declined to comment Monday.
He was appointed to the commission Oct. 25, 2016, by former Councilor Mike Baker. That three-year term expired Oct. 31, 2019. His current term expires Oct. 31, 2022.
The commission’s other members are Dothel Edwards (District 2), Noel Danielewicz (District 3), Geraldine Buckner (District 4), Bill Ward (District 6), Lisa Branchcomb (District 7), Julio Portillo (District 8), Scott Taft (District 9), Tyson Begly (District 10), and Pete Temesgen, the mayor’s appointee.
Hickey, who supports Barnes’ proposal to give the commission more power, said he now believes the panel needs a code of ethics requiring representatives to recuse themselves in matters involving them personally.
Crabb, who’s against giving the commission subpoena power, said this illustrates a difference between council, an elected body that derives its subpoena power from the city charter, and the commission, an appointed board to which council would delegate that authority, under Barnes’ ordinance:
Councilors through elections are accountable directly to the voters, and have a city attorney to advise them to abstain from voting on matters in which they have a conflict of interest, she said. The commission lacks such safeguards.
“Why would we want to give random citizens that power?” she asked.
Similar case?
Hickey said Watkins’ treatment raises a fairness issue, noting that in 2014, John Allen Jr., the son of senior Superior Court Judge John Allen, was charged with a crime when, while serving as a police officer, he allegedly attacked two juveniles in custody after they tried to break into his mother’s home.
That was around 8:30 a.m. April 14, 2014, when Allen was a corporal in the department’s fugitive unit, police said. After a foot chase, officers caught two suspects, ages 15 and 16, who were handcuffed when Allen “got into the rear of each patrol vehicle and physically hit and choked the juveniles,” according to a GBI news release.
A police internal affairs investigation alleged Allen violated eight policies, including his oath of office and “the willful or neglectful mistreatment of a prisoner.” Boren asked the GBI to investigate.
Allen was charged with two felony counts of violation of oath of office and two misdemeanor counts of simple battery. He was released on bond and resigned from the police department.
Columbus District Attorney Julia Slater recused herself from Allen’s case, which went to a prosecutor from another judicial circuit. A grand jury on May 10, 2016, refused to indict Allen, dismissing the charges, said Columbus attorney Stacey Jackson, who represented him.
Hickey said it appears to him that the police department treated Watkins more favorably than Allen, who is Black. “That’s real troubling for me,” he said.
That’s a reason to give the advisory commission more power, to investigate such differences, he said: “That’s why we need oversight.” He said the board could have compared the two cases and asked, “Why are we not being consistent with this situation?”
Council will hold its second public hearing on Barnes’ proposal during its 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday at the Columbus Civic Center.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 4:38 PM.