ROCK HILL, S.C. — A jury has acquitted a fired South Carolina police officer of assaulting a Black man during a traffic stop last year.
The jurors on Wednesday found former Rock Hill police investigator Jonathan Moreno not guilty of the misdemeanor assault charge. Moreno and his attorneys argued he was scapegoated by police and prosecutors over the June 2021 incident that Moreno publicly apologized for last year.
Bystander video on Facebook shows officers wrestling with Travis Price and his brother and forcing them to the ground. The incident prompted several days of protests last summer.
Prosecutors claimed Price was an innocent bystander on the scene as police arrested his brother when Moreno assaulted him without provocation.