Former Elkhart police officer pleads guilty in federal court to beating handcuffed man
An Elkhart police officer who was seen repeatedly punching a handcuffed man in a 2018 video obtained by The South Bend Tribune and ProPublica pleaded guilty in a federal civil rights case last week.
The plea agreement calls for Cory Newland to be sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in the incident, in which he and fellow officer Joshua Titus were seen on a security camera video beating Mario Guerrero Ledesma while the man was handcuffed to a chair in a detention area at the city police station.
Newland will also pay a yet-to-be-determined amount to Ledesma in restitution. His plea comes less than a month before the case was set to go to trial.
“I knew at the time of the assault that my use of force on [Ledesma] was unjustified and unlawful under the circumstances,” Newland says in his plea deal.
Jessica McBrier, a spokeswoman for the Elkhart Police Department, said Newland resigned from the force on Aug. 30 — the same day U.S. Magistrate Judge Joshua Kolar accepted his guilty plea.
“The department has no further comment on any plea he entered in federal court,” McBrier said in an email to The Tribune.
Attorneys representing Newland with the Stracci Law Group did not respond to an interview request.
Titus has pleaded not guilty and is still scheduled to go to trial later this month. Both officers were placed on leave in late 2018, and Titus is still on unpaid leave with the department, McBrier said.
Fallout from video
The Tribune obtained the video of the beating in Nov. 2018 as part of an ongoing investigation with ProPublica into practices within the Elkhart Police Department and Elkhart County Prosecutor's office that led to wrongful convictions. The investigation also revealed 28 of the police department’s 34 highest-ranking officers had disciplinary records.
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The video of the beating shows Ledesma, seated and wearing handcuffs while Newland, Titus and other officers stood nearby.
At one point Ledesma spat toward Newland. Titus and Newland immediately punched Ledesma in the face, causing him to fall backward onto the floor. Titus and Newland then jumped on top of him and punched him repeatedly.
“I placed [Ledesma] in a chair with his hands handcuffed behind his back and behind the back of the chair,” Newland says in his plea deal. "[Ledesma] spat in my direction. I responded by punching him in the face, causing him to fall backwards onto the floor. Another officer, Joshua Titus, and I continued to strike [Ledesma] repeatedly with our fists. [Ledesma] was in handcuffs during the entirety of the time we were punching him.”
Ledesma had initially been arrested on suspicion of domestic battery. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in jail, with 133 days of that sentence suspended.
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Five months after the incident, then-Elkhart Police Chief Ed Windbigler gave both Newland and Titus reprimands but did not suspend or demote them. Speaking in 2018 to the city’s police oversight commission, Windbigler said the two officers “just went a little overboard” in subduing a person in custody, but he did not mention the fact the pair punched a handcuffed suspect.
The Tribune obtained the video after that meeting, and the discrepancy between the video and Windbigler’s description of the incident was cited in the city suspending Windbigler. He later resigned.
Newland and Titus were originally charged with misdemeanor battery in Elkhart County in Nov. 2018. That case was put aside when the pair were indicted on federal civil rights charges in March 2019.
A sentencing date for Newland has not yet been set.
Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Former Indiana officer pleads guilty to beating handcuffed man
