Video Prompts Investigation Into Delaware County Arrest

HAVERFORD TOWNSHIP, PA — Last weekend, police in Haverford Township arrested a 30-year-old Delaware County man and charged him with public drunkenness, resisting arrest, and related crimes.

But now that arrest is under investigation after a citizen's video showed two arresting officers hitting the man.

Christopher M. Ricciuti, 30, of Broomall, was arrested May 3 in Haverford Township and charged with resisting arrest, public drunkenness, disarming a law enforcement officer, and engaging in fighting.

An Upper Darby man caught part of the incident on camera, and the video shows two police officer using a taser on Ricciuti and hitting him numerous times with a baton and kicking him while holding him to the ground.

Now, the arrest is being investigated by the Delaware County District Attorney's Office

"The office has received the body cam recording from the Haverford Police Department, and the head of the Special Investigations Unit is reviewing it along with our detectives," the DA's office told Patch.

Not further information was made available by the DA's office.

Haverford Township Police Chief John Viola told the outlet that the video does not show the full incident and that Ricciuti tried to run away when police were trying to handcuff him on a public drunkenness charge, according to Philadelphia Magazine. Ricciuti, the outlet reports, was found asleep in a business's parking lot.

He was released Friday after posting 10 percent of $10,000 bail, court records show.