Police Tried Cover-Up In Ex-NFL Player's Arrest: Lawsuit

MCDONOUGH, GA — Police and county officials in Georgia tried to cover up excessive force used during the arrest of a former NFL player, that player's attorney contends in a lawsuit filed on Monday. WSB-TV reports that Desmond Marrow, who played defensive back briefly for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has filed suit against Henry County, saying his rights were violated during a Dec. 2 arrest.

In a video of the arrest that began circulating in April, Henry County Police officers can be seen slamming Marrow into a pickup truck, then onto the ground, and choking him. (Watch the video below.)

On the ground, Marrow appears to be crying as he shouts, "I didn't even do nothing to y'all!" and, as he begins to shout something else, one of the officers grabs him by the throat and holds it. "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!," Marrow shouts, until the officer eventually takes his hand off of Marrow's throat.

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Police were responding to a report of a road-rage incident. After an internal investigation, Officer David Rose was found to have used excessive force and was fired. Rose also was recorded on his in-car video camera saying that he had choked Marrow, but that he wasn't going to include that fact in his report.

McDonough, the seat of Henry County, is about 35 miles south of Atlanta along Interstate 75.

WSB reports that Marrow's lawsuit alleges that a full internal affairs investigation had already taken place in December, just days after the incident, but that no action was taken until after the video became public in April.

That original report said Rose placing his hand on Marrow's neck did not appear to be intentional and that officers had complied with department policy. The second report, dated May 4, notes that Rose can be heard saying "I'm not gonna write it down, but hell yeah, I choked that (expletive)."

Police and elected officials were "fully aware of the false report created ... and the dashcam audio which captured defendants Rose and Donaldson planning to hide their use of excessive force," the lawsuit says.

"I thought I was going to die," Desmond Marrow wrote in a Facebook post in April. "I was sure I was passing out or dying when [an officer] was choking me as my breath kept slipping away."

The native of Youngstown, Ohio, played college football at University of Toledo. Marrow played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012. He appeared in two pre-season games and did not compile any regular-season statistics, according to NFL.com

In the Facebook post, he wrote that he has been working as an athletic trainer. He wrote that he had teeth knocked out during the arrest and suffered a strained shoulder and a concussion.

No felony charges were brought against Marrow. Police originally referred the remaining misdemeanor charges to a solicitor for review. The solicitor approved two misdemeanor charges after Marrow's attorney said they planned to go public with the internal review information. They call the charges retaliation.

Photo via YouTube