A Michigan judge sentenced former police officer William Melendez to 10 years in prison for beating an unarmed motorist.
Judge Vonda Evans lectured Melendez from the bench after sentencing him for a police brutality case involving a black man in 2015.
Melendez and several other Hispanic officers reportedly dragged Dent from his car, tased him and beat him senseless before fist bumping each other.
Judge Evans said the former cops appeared to be “a group of angry, anxious police officers that celebrated after the defendant was beaten and cuffed.”
The officers allegedly planted a bag of rock cocaine under the passenger seat of Dent’s car.
It was all caught on dash cam video.
“You forgot the eye of justice was watching,” the judge told Melendez. “The dash cam designed to protect you, caught you. You knew better.”
Judge Evans described Dent as a “black man in a Cadillac, stopped for a minor traffic offense by a group of racist police officers looking to do a nigga.”
Evans quoted a text sent to Melendez by another officer: “At least give me the satisfaction of knowing that you’re out there beating up niggers right now.”
She said the officers laughed as they were cleaning Dent’s blood from their uniforms with disinfectant.
Melendez addressed the judge before his sentencing.
He apologized to Dent’s family, and to his own family for the hardship he brought them after he was fired from the police force.
He finished his statement with a few lines from a poem, “The Final Inspection.”
Melendez was convicted of misconduct in office and assault with intent to do great bodily harm.
