ORLANDO, Fla. — A jury found an Orlando police officer not guilty on all charges, including two felony counts of false imprisonment and one count of misdemeanor battery.
Dante Candelaria, then a member of the OPD gang unit, was accused of shoving a teenager to the ground, punching him and illegally detaining him and his girlfriend.
Surveillance cameras caught Officer Dante Candelaria tossing Bryan Payne, 18, to the ground and repeatedly punching him in the face outside McCoy Elementary School in Orlando last January.
Candelaria's attorney told the jury the video was misleading.
Payne said he was waiting for his girlfriend when, for no apparent reason, the officer tossed him to the ground.
In the security video, Payne put up his hands to block the blows, and then Candelaria slammed him against a brick wall and put him in handcuffs.
The officer then handcuffed Payne, and demanded to know where he could find his girlfriend's brother, Juan Rodriguez, who was suspected of fleeing from Candelaria earlier in the day when he tried to pull him over during a traffic stop.
Candelaria has been working in property and evidence until the criminal case was finished.