Officers Using Resisting Arrest Without Violence Charges

Often, police are slapping citizens with a little-known charge called resisting arrest.

Eyewitness News found that when the cases go to court, there are very few convictions.

Some are wondering if officers are over-stepping their authority just to throw people in jail.

"It's ridiculous, you can't even be safe in your own house," said Lilliam Quiles.

That's exactly where she and her mom, Marie, were when an Orange County sheriff's deputy came knocking on their door. They had been asleep and had no idea what was going on.

Marie told Channel Nine "He says, 'I'm the police, you need to open the door.' I say, 'In regards of?' And he says, 'I cannot tell you.'"

Video from their home surveillance camera shows that the deputy wasn't wearing a uniform. When Marie didn't open the door, he put on a police vest and tried again.

"He comes banging, but harder this time and he's shouting this time and you can see that he's really mad," said Marie.

The deputy arrested Marie on a battery charge from an ongoing feud with her neighbor. He wouldn't look at her file of 12 incident reports. Nor would he look at video which would prove she didn't do it. Instead he hauled her off to jail. And he tacked on a charge for resisting without violence. Then he charged Lilliam with resisting as well. Lilliam was crying, scared for her mom.

Defense attorney David Bigney says he rarely sees a case now where resisting isn’t a charge.

"All these people want is to know why, what's going on here, but the officer decides I'm just going to arrest you," said Bigney.

And often it's the only charge.

In more than 25-percent of the 4000-plus cases Eyewitness News tracked, resisting was the only charge. That begs the question: if there's no arrest for something else how could they be resisting arrest?

David Bigney calls it, “…a terrible abuse of the system. It is an excuse to get somebody off their back in many cases."

And our investigation found prosecutors are rarely forced to prove the cases they pursue. 94-percent of the time the suspects pled guilty or no contest right away.

David Bigney says that it’s often seen as a “…fast way out. They can't afford a lawyer or they just want to get it over with, not realizing they potentially have a defense to the charges."

Of the 41 cases that did go to trial only 13 were found guilty.

Bigney admits there are some cases, such as when a suspect won’t cooperate with police, where the charge is warranted.

Orlando Police Chief Mike McCoy says the charge is necessary to protect officers and prevent onlookers from interfering in investigations.

McCoy says, "The street's not the place to dispute it, the courts are."

A judge threw out both charges against Marie. And a jury found Lilliam not-guilty. But both spent time in jail along with money on an attorney, to restore their faith in the justice system.

Marie said, "They cannot just generalize good people with bad people. They need to stop the way they're treating people because you're supposedly innocent until proven guilty."

Experts say that if you're involved in a situation with an officer don't argue, pull away or even question why. That can give them cause to add the resisting without violence charge.