Deputy, couple take stand
Michael Bratt, 49, was the last witness to take the stand Friday. Bratt is being charged with three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer.
Deputy Steven George, soft spoken, polite, not too big of a man, took the witness stand Thursday evening and again Friday morning in the Michael Bratt trial.
Bratt, 49, is on trial for three charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, and was arrested after George, now 26, responded to a noise complaint at Bratt’s residence in the early morning hours of Christmas night, 2009.
“Someone was screaming that I was trespassing,” George told Lewis. “I said ‘I’m a deputy sheriff and that I’m there for the explosion.'”
About eight minutes later, George and Bratt emerged from a fight inside the defendant’s home. George said Bratt slammed his head into a coffee table, grabbed his Taser and gave him two “dry stuns,” and continually reached for his gun.
“My eyes were tearing up, I had trouble breathing. Blood was gushing down the back of my throat,” George said.
The first deputy on scene, Kenneth Van Tassel, testified George was in a state of shock when he arrived. Another deputy said George was heaving like a “little kid after getting spanked,” and had to have his bulletproof vest stripped off to help him breathe better.
George said he wasn’t “frozen” on the floor, but sitting on top of Bratt when Van Tassel arrived.
During cross examination, defense attorney Stephen Romine asked why George reached for his Taser and not his gun, and cited Taser download records that indicated the last time the Taser was used it was held down for 26 minutes.
“I did not hold it down for 26 minutes,” George said, adding the Taser wasn’t working properly during the fight and the record was incorrect.
During re-examination by the state, Lewis asked why he didn’t pull his gun and use deadly force during the fight.
“Because he would have gotten my gun,” George said.
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After four days of court proceedings, Michael Bratt and his wife, Marjorie Youmans, each sat in the witness stand to give their accounts of what happened the night of Dec. 26, 2009.
Marjorie Youmans, Bratt’s wife, testified first Friday afternoon.
When asked by Lewis if she thought law enforcement had the right to come on her property, she said “no,” not since that night. Lewis next asked why Youmans didn’t call 911 during the fight.
“Would you call 911 on a police officer?” Youmans laughed.
Youmans often elaborated on her answers and changed the subject, prompting Judge Kurt Hitzemann to remind her “yes and no” questions asked by an attorney warrant a “yes or no” answer.
Youmans guessed there were at least 23 law enforcement officers at her house that evening. The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office arrest report lists about 10 law enforcement officers by name as being on scene that night.
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Many law enforcement officers testified earlier in the week that Bratt was violent and combative, and fought back when a young deputy responded to a noise complaint in the early hours after Christmas night more than three years ago.
Bratt’s attorneys, Stephen Romain and Rohom Khonsari, referenced Bratt’s injuries throughout the week, especially an orbital fracture that collapsed one of his eyes down into his cheek. Bratt said that the injury was inflicted by a deputy, who stood well over 6 feet and weighed about 360 pounds at the time.
Bratt took a nearly empty water bottle on the stand and crushed it with his foot.
“And I heard it pop … (and I started) seeing black,” Bratt said.
Bratt — who has titanium cages in his body for a back injury from 1992 — said he is very “protective” of his back, and warned officers of the injury after they removed him from his home that night.
“They said, ‘You like to hit cops?'” Bratt said, and “five or six” officers repeatedly hit him in the back.
Bratt later said about eight or nine cops beat him on his front lawn that night, with about 30 deputies and emergency response individuals there that night.
“And not one of them said stop,” Bratt said.
