The incident caught the country’s attention when a news crew recorded a video of Martin Gugino being pushed by police officers Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski in downtown Buffalo as riot police stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. the evening. Gugino, pushed back, began to bleed after hitting his head on the sidewalk. He spent about a month in hospital with a skull fracture and a brain injury. In a ruling on Friday, referee Jeffrey Selczyk wrote: “At the hearing, there is no evidence to support any claim that the respondents (police officers) had any viable choice other than to remove Gugino from the path of their future move.” . The level of violence used was justified because Gugino refused to comply with orders to leave the scene and acted erratically and walked right in front of McCabe, according to Selchick. “The use of force used by the respondents did not reflect any intention on their part to do more than remove Gugino away from them,” he wrote. At the time, Matt Daloisio, a friend and colleague of Gugino’s activist and public defense lawyer, told the Guardian: “I know exactly what he did. I have seen him do it a hundred other times. “What I think he did was try to offer them something to read on his phone: the law, the right of people to assemble. Or asking why they were preventing people from exercising that right. “ Donald Trump, then president, posted on Twitter an unfounded conspiracy theory, apparently from the cable news agency OANN, that Gugino could be “an antifa provocateur” and that the whole incident “could be a set up”. Buffalo police arrested McCabe and Torgalski without charge and arrested him within days of being ousted. However, the charges against them were dropped after a large court refused to indict them last year. A Gugino lawyer told Buffalo News that the decision had nothing to do with a lawsuit against the city. “We do not know of any case where this referee has ruled against police officers on duty, so his decision here on behalf of the police was not only expected of us, but was certainly expected of the club and the city that chose him and paid him. “, Said Melissa Wischerath in the newspaper. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said he would reinstate the two officers on Monday, the newspaper reported. Emails asking for comment were left with a lawyer representing the city, who supported the disciplinary charges, and with the Buffalo Police Association.
