Video shows fired Las Vegas officer slamming woman onto car hood
LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas police have released body camera footage after a former officer pleaded guilty to excessive force this week.
Richard Scavone, 50, agreed to a plea deal Thursday admitting that he used excessive force, CBS Las Vegas affiliate KLAS-TV reports.
The body camera footage from the January 2015 incident shows Scavone touching the woman's neck. He asks "what do we have here" and tries to reach for her necklace or chest area. She turns away, and Scavone immediately slams her on the hood of his police vehicle. "Don't ever pull away from me!" Scavone says as the woman screams, "Get off of me!"
Scavone takes what appear to be keys and a cellphone out of the woman's shirt, and when she pulls away, Scavone slams her on the hood a second time.
The victim, Amanda Ortiz, was arrested after the incident. She filed a complaint and lawsuit against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Ortiz was charged with littering and loitering, but those charges were dropped.
"You're an officer that's supposed to be there for my safety or, you know what I mean, and at that point, I just felt unsafe," Ortiz told KLAS-TV in 2016.
The department's Fiscal Affairs Committee has agreed to pay Ortiz $200,000 through a settlement.
Scavone was fired from the department. He now faces one year in prison along with a $100,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled for January 2018.
The former officer was initially charged with violating the woman's civil rights and falsifying his report of the encounter to obstruct an FBI investigation, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, citing the indictment.