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Judge Scolds Prosecutor, Says She's 'Disgusted' By Case

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON sthompson@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2008

CLEARWATER - The judge's indignant remarks came a day after a jury acquitted a man of charges he had struck two Gulfport police officers.

Like the Pinellas County jury, Circuit Judge Cynthia Newton had listened as Frederick Bramich and his stepfather and mother testified it was Bramich who was attacked, not the other way around.

Even the officers involved did not dispute in their depositions that they hit the 45-year-old man with a baton, kicked him, and repeatedly used their stun guns on him. One jolt lasted 21 seconds, said Bramich's defense attorney, J. Andrew Crawford. Bramich this week told The Tampa Tribune he thought he was going to die.

By the morning after the two-day trial, Newton already had decided what she was going to do with a request by prosecutors that Bramich be ordered to pay one officer's medical bills. The officer claimed he strained his shoulder in the struggle with Bramich.

She also decided on a request by Assistant State Attorney Robert Bruce that Bramich be ordered to pay the costs of the police investigation, along with the cost of his incarceration.

She was having none of it.

"I was disgusted by this case," Newton told Bruce, according to a transcript of the Sept. 18 hearing. "This man was tasered multiple times, he was beaten with a baton for no reason. It was disgusting. I'm not imposing these costs, let me put it that way."

The Charges

Bramich originally was charged with resisting arrest with violence and with two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer. In a rare move, prosecutors dropped one of the battery charges midtrial after testimony revealed there was no evidence Bramich assaulted one of the officers.

The jury acquitted Bramich of the sole remaining charge of battery on a law enforcement officer, and found him guilty of resisting arrest without violence, a misdemeanor. Judge Newton withheld adjudication of guilt, and a 12-month probationary sentence was terminated as soon as Bramich paid $475 in court costs.

According to Crawford, who works for the McDermott law firm in St. Pete Beach, the State Attorney's Office wanted Bramich to pay $1,800 for a strained shoulder suffered by Gulfport police Officer Steven Beltran, along with $297.06 for investigative costs and $250 levied by the jail.

When Newton said no, Bruce threatened to appeal and took umbrage that there had been no hearing on the matter, according to the transcript. Judge Newton refused to set one.

"I heard all the evidence," she said, "I heard all the testimony; I heard them testify what happened; I'm not setting another hearing after the jury comes back on a misdemeanor on one count.

"Now you want to have a hearing and bring these officers back in to talk about their injuries? Are you kidding me?"

Bruce's argument was that Bramich was obligated to pay because the jury found him guilty of resisting arrest without violence. He told the judge she had no discretion as to whether Bramich should be charged for his stay at the jail, but she wasn't swayed.

"I'm not finding that that's reasonable after everything I've heard, Mr. Bruce," Newton said. "Apparently, you just have an absolute blind spot to what this defendant was put through. ... Let's just slam him with costs now after he was unnecessarily beaten down in this case.

"Go ahead and appeal it, Mr. Bruce."

The Incident

On Aug. 17, 2007, Gulfport police received a complaint from Bramich's neighbor, Harold Burke, a 55-year-old security guard, court records say. Burke wanted to have Bramich warned not to trespass on his property, the records say.

Burke also said Bramich had a gun.

Officers Beltran and Thomas Woodman went to Bramich's house at 5920 19th Ave. S., according to records. Their computer check with a dispatcher showed there was a domestic violence injunction against Bramich, with an amendment attached to it that said he couldn't have a firearm, Beltran testified in a deposition.

Pinellas court records show that during a yearslong divorce lawsuit, Bramich's wife in 2002 obtained a domestic violence injunction against him that appears never to have been lifted. A judge gave him custody of their son two years later.

Bramich said this week the injunction was no longer in effect. Records show he had a concealed weapons permit.

What happened next is in dispute.

Beltran said in his deposition that Bramich got nervous when the issue of the gun came up, and he decided against discussing the injunction. When Bramich started walking away, Beltran and Woodman grabbed him by the arms, and took him to the ground, but Bramich got up and ran, Beltran said in his deposition.

Woodman shot Bramich in the back with his Taser, but Bramich yanked out the electric prongs and kept running, Beltran said. Bramich was shot in the back again with the stun gun, but that still didn't subdue him, Beltran said. The officers followed him into a house where Beltran shot him with the Taser twice, Woodman struck him 20 times with a police baton, and a third officer arriving on the scene kicked him before he was subdued, the officers said.

They may not have known it, but Bramich had run into his parents' house, down the street from his own.

Bramich and Crawford, his attorney, dispute the officers' versions of events. They say that when Woodman asked Bramich about the injunction in the driveway of his home, he denied there was one and demanded to see the paperwork. Then Woodman mentioned searching Bramich's home, and Bramich said he wanted to see a search warrant.

Bramich said Woodman said they didn't need one.

That's when, Bramich said, Woodman pulled out his baton and struck him on the head. Bramich also was punched in the ribs before he was thrown to the ground. He said he then heard someone yell, "Shoot him, shoot him." Bramich didn't know what the voice was referring to, so he got up and ran to his parents' home. Then he was repeatedly shot with the Taser.

Prosecutors asked the officers, along with the neighbor Burke, whether they would agree to a pretrial intervention program for Bramich. If he completed it, the charges would be dismissed. None agreed.

Bramich also was asked, Crawford said. He didn't want it, either. He wanted his day in court.

"I'm innocent," Bramich said this week. "It was all uncalled for and it turned into a nightmare and I almost lost my life."

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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