Kick, sexual assaults: Serious injuries by Atlanta police not investigated by citizen board

The board’s Executive Director Lee Reid did not respond to questions about why the board did not seek to review these cases even though city law requires it to investigate and hold public hearings “where a person has died or sustained serious bodily injury while in police custody.”

It is the latest misstep of a beleaguered city board to be uncovered by a continuing Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation revealed earlier this year that the city’s system for having citizens review cases of police deadly force was broken. The board has failed to investigate nearly four dozen times officers shot or civilians have died in police custody in the past four years.

The findings include that the police failed to notify the board when police internal investigations were complete. This month, Chief Darin Schierbaum apologized for the lapse and promised transparency in the future.

When asked by the AJC about this new group of cases in which civilians suffered serious injuries, the police department said it plans to broaden its definition of serious injury and to notify the board of future incidents.

The Atlanta City Council will weigh in Monday on whether proposed changes will correct their concerns about the breakdown in citizen oversight of police conduct.

“Anytime a sworn officer abuses their authority, it is a grave matter that must be addressed with the utmost seriousness,” said Atlanta Councilwoman Andrea Boone.

Boone leads the council’s public safety committee which is driving public discussion on the review board stalled investigations. It was always the intent of the council that the review board would do independent oversight of serious injuries in custody, including if the officer was convicted of a crime, she said.

“They still need to review those cases,” Boone said about the board. “I still want them to do their job.”

The review board is tasked with recommending officer discipline as well as reforms and training for the Atlanta Police Department. Its review is separate and different from any criminal investigation.

In 2020, following the fatal arrests of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, the City Council expanded the board’s powers to also investigate and hold public hearings when civilians die or are seriously injured while in police custody.

The Atlanta Police Department did not answer the AJC’s questions about why in the past four years it had not notified the review board about civilian injuries after officers faced criminal charges, including misdemeanor assault or felony aggravated sodomy.

In a statement Wednesday, the Atlanta Police Department said it is changing its policy. Its definition of serious injury, “did not encompass all of the situations that the ACRB (review board) might be interested in reviewing. As a result, the definition of serious injury has been expanded...

“The new definition will include referral of any in-custody injuries where the subject has required treatment in a hospital emergency department in addition to the current situations,” the police department statement reads.

Mayor Andre Dickens supports the review board and police department’s work on an agreement to ensure the board is reviewing the appropriate cases, a spokesperson wrote in a statement Friday.

‘Discredit, embarrassment and distrust’

Howard Portis was charged with sexually attacking three women while on the job and wearing his Atlanta police uniform.

While responding to an apartment burglary call on March 25, 2021, Portis exposed himself, grabbed the victim and forced her to perform oral sex on him. A Fulton County jury found him guilty of aggravated sodomy.

Portis was sentenced to 25 years in prison, lifetime parole and to register as a sex offender. He is appealing the verdict.

At trial the woman, whose name is being withheld because the AJC generally does not identify the victims of sexual violence, said that Portis initially seemed to be investigating the burglary and even dusted for fingerprints. That was before he turned off his body camera.

“The young man started off genuine, genuine like an officer, a real officer. Turned out to be a monster,” she testified at the trial.

Fulton County public defender Lauren Shubow, who is representing Portis, had no comment.

While responding to another burglary call, prosecutors said Portis turned off his body camera before sexually assaulting a blind woman in September 2020. Portis is charged with felony exploitation of a disabled person, sexual battery and violating his oath as a public officer. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The woman lived alone. She died last year.

Portis said he kissed her lips and breasts but she refused to perform oral sex, according to a transcript of his interview with police internal affairs.

Portis was acquitted of charges that he sought oral sex from a third woman after transporting her and her two young children to their home following a car accident.

Portis “brought great discredit, embarrassment and distrust” on the department, a police internal affairs investigator wrote in the file before closing it on April 21, 2021 after Portis resigned.

Yet the file was not given to the review board to evaluate if rules, policies or training at the Atlanta Police Department needed to be changed to prevent similar misconduct from happening again.

Atlanta redefines serious injury

While deaths in police custody cases have been referred to the board, what exactly qualifies as a serious injury is unclear and is on the table for review, officials said.

The police department manual states that a serious physical injury is “a bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death; causes serious permanent disfigurement; or results in long-term loss or impairment of the functioning of any bodily member or organ.”

By that standard almost no one’s injuries have been deemed serious by police.

Of the more than 1,700 times that Atlanta police officers reported using force against a civilian, only four people were deemed to be seriously injured by the department between January 2020 and June 2024, data show.

For two years – all of 2022 and 2023 - the Atlanta Police Department reported that no one had a “serious” injury after officers used force. Civilian injuries were labeled as either minor, moderate, needing medical attention or unknown.

Police policy calls for an officer who causes serious injury to go on desk duty for at least three days. Those cases are also supposed to go to the review board.

Councilman Antonio Lewis, who serves on the council’s public safety committee, said the review board is only as good as the information it receives from the police. The police department’s decision not to label civilian injuries as “serious” undermined the review board’s oversight, he said.

“If they were filling out their paperwork the right way -- the system would work correctly,” Lewis said.

Lewis agrees with Boone and said he now wants the board to investigate the newly identified serious injury cases and said he hopes “that the police will be more forthcoming.”

He urged cooperation. “They shouldn’t be fighting like that. They should be working together, because the goal should be to root out the bad apples,” Lewis said.

Teen harmed by officer

In the early morning hours of Aug. 2, 2023, a teenage girl awoke on the highway after the air bags of her parents’ car exploded. A Georgia State Patrol trooper helped her move her car over to a safe space, and then she was left in the care of Atlanta officer Anthony Anderson.

Instead of providing the 16-year-old with help, Anderson canceled an ambulance, tow truck and team of firefighters that were responding to the car accident. Anderson drove the girl to a convenience store on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and told her to go into the bathroom until he returned, court records show.

He drove back to his Atlanta police precinct and clocked out of work early. He changed clothes and got into his black Dodge Charger with blacked out windows, court records show.

He returned to collect the girl and promised her a ride home to Gwinnett County.

On the drive Anderson, who was 35 at the time, asked if she wanted to go shopping or to his house. He then had her slide closer to him, exposed himself and forced her to give him oral sex, prosecutors said.

The teenage girl reported the incident at her high school the next day.

“It was the defendant’s job as a police officer to help her get home after the car accident that night. She never felt as sick in her stomach as when it happened,” Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney Sau Chan told the court when Anderson pled guilty in January.

Anderson was sentenced to six years in prison and 19 years of probation. He cannot work in law enforcement but he doesn’t need to register as a sex offender. The AJC made multiple attempts to locate Anderson for comment but was told that his location within the Georgia Department of Corrections is not public information.

In plain sight but not reported

Sergeant Marc Theodule was placed on administrative leave at the end of his shift in July 2021 after he kicked a handcuffed woman in the face as she spat toward him. A video circulating on social media and body-camera footage captured the interaction.

At the time, Atlanta police were waiting for an ambulance to transport the woman for emergency mental health treatment.

“Your actions produced significant social media and traditional media coverage, which caused severe damage to the reputation of the Atlanta Police Department,” investigators wrote in disciplinary documents dismissing Theodule from the police force.

He pled guilty in April 2023 to misdemeanor assault and battery in exchange for no time in prison. The court instead ordered him to be on probation for a year, complete 12-hours of anger management and 40 hours of community service.

Theodule surrendered his law enforcement certification and is no longer eligible to work as a cop, records show.