Ainsley Johson with his newborn baby and fiancee
Brooklyn, NY — Ainsley Johnson, a 34-year old Black man from New York City who was accused of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest when he bit off and swallow a cop’s fingertip, was acquitted by a jury after a shocking video of the incident show that Johnson was actually on the ground being brutally attacked by four NYPD officers. He was released from prison just in time to meet his newborn son.
On Monday, Johnson was discharged after he was found not guilty at trial. After being in prison for seven months, he was released just in time to meet his fiancee Christine and his newborn son Casey, who was born at Maimonides Medical Center as the trial ended.
“He”s very happy,” Johnson’s lawyer, Michael Biniakewitz, told New York Daily News. “His baby was born on Friday and he was released on Monday so he was able to bring his son home.”
Johnson was arrested on April 6 after allegedly busting the doors and windows of a 46-year-old man’s 2003 BMW car and destroying a mailbox with a cement planter in Canarsie, Brooklyn. When he was brought at the precinct to be charged with criminal mischief, he allegedly bit off the fingertip of the officer who was trying to re-cuff him, police said.
According to the police, Johnson chomped down on the middle finger of Officer Michael Hawk’s left hand, snapping the tip off the cuticle. They couldn’t find the lost part of Hawk’s finger but they later found out that Johnson swallowed it.
Johnson was additionally charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. However, Biniakewitz said a surveillance video from the precinct shows otherwise.
In the video, four officers were seen throwing Johnson on the ground and jumping on him while he screams for help and cries out to another inmate to remember his name. As Hawk tried to silence him through putting his hand over his mouth, Johnson bit off his finger.
Biniakewitz added that at that time, Johnson was trying to show the cops a wound on his leg so he took his socks off and he was not resisting.
“It’s as clear as day that (Johnson) wasn’t resisting and cooperative when the officer threw him to the ground,” Biniakewitz argued. “When he was on the floor, his hands were underneath him, but, with four cops sitting on him, prosecutors wanted the jury to believe my client was able to purposely move his face to the officer’s hand to bite him.”
He added, “Every cop on cross admitted that his hands were behind him.”
The jury acquitted Johnson in less than an hour. They also did not convict him for the car busting incident, which sparked his clash with the police, due to lack of evidence.
“A cop loses his temper, he gets injured and the police try to fudge the report, that’s what happened here,” Biniakweitz said.
Johnson, who has nine previous arrests including two sex offenses, is considering filing a civil rights lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Hawk, a 24-year old police officer who suffered minor injuries from the incident, is now back on duty.