A former NFL player who was choked during a 2017 arrest reached a financial settlement with police in Henry County, Georgia.
Desmond Marrow was already in handcuffs in December 2017 when an officer choked him following an alleged road rage incident. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, then- officer David Rose was initially cleared of wrong-doing after a five-day internal investigation was closed.
It was cellphone video that surfaced months later, in April 2018, that led the county to fire Rose. Marrow's civil suit followed shortly after.
"We are pleased that Henry County has decided to resolve the case brought by Desmond Marrow and for a record amount for a non-death case. Most significantly, the officer who choked Mr. Marrow pleaded guilty to battery, surrendered his law enforcement certification and will never work in law enforcement again –– two rare conclusions in use-of-force cases," attorneys Chris Stewart, Andrea Boyd, and Dianna Lee, said in a joint statement.
Marrow played cornerback for the University of Toledo and signed with the Houston Texans in 2012 after going undrafted, but did not play in an NFL game.
Marrow's lawyers say the 2017 incident began when he followed two men into the parking lot of a store after they called him racial slurs and threw hot coffee into his car while he was driving. A bystander contacted 911 and inaccurately told authorities that Marrow had a weapon.
On the cellphone video, Marrow can be heard screaming, "I'm not even fighting back" and "I can't breathe" several times. Dash cam footage caught Rose telling his partner, "I'm not going to write it down, but hell yeah I choked that (expletive)."
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