Prosecutors dismiss charges against Antwan Glover, arrested in 2022 Lakeland traffic stop

Gary White, Lakeland Ledger
·2 min read
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Antwan Glover demonstrates how he was punched by Lakeland police as he was sitting on the ground leaning against his vehicle during an interview in Lakeland on Jan. 6, 2023. At right is Pastor Clayton Cowart.
Antwan Glover demonstrates how he was punched by Lakeland police as he was sitting on the ground leaning against his vehicle during an interview in Lakeland on Jan. 6, 2023. At right is Pastor Clayton Cowart.

Antwan Glover, a Lakeland man whose violent arrest after a traffic stop in December 2022 was captured on video, will not face prosecution.

The State Attorney’s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit filed a document last week dismissing all charges against Glover. Assistant State Attorney Katherine Artman wrote that the charges could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, based on facts and circumstances.

Glover, 37, had faced three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer and one of resisting arrest with violence.

The Lakeland Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit stopped Glover on Dec. 18, 2022, on West Ninth Street for allegedly not wearing a seatbelt, and officers then saw marijuana inside his car, according to an arrest affidavit. Officers eventually pulled Glover from the vehicle and forced him to the street before handcuffing him.

Two videos of Glover's arrest, later posted online, showed an officer apparently punching Glover in the head and upper torso while Glover’s hands, with open palms, appeared to be held by his face.

A video posted Dec. 21, 2022, on Facebook appears to show a Lakeland police officer repeatedly punching a suspect, Antwan Glover, while arresting him after a traffic stop. Witnesses used phones to record videos during the incident that occurred shortly after midnight. In 2 clips posted to the Facebook page of the suspect, 4 officers can be seen helping to subdue him in the Paul A. Diggs neighborhood.

Black Lives Matter Restoration Polk Inc. called for the four officers involved to be arrested and asked the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation, as The Ledger reported at the time.

LPD Chief Sam Taylor placed the four officers on paid administrative leave in January 2023 and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct its own investigation into Glover's arrest alongside its own internal investigation.

Last July, State Attorney Brian Haas delivered a summary of the FDLE report to Taylor. The agency determined that no charges were warranted against any of the four officers.

"The partial video of the arrest described herein that was circulated by the defendant is a misleading representation of the entire incident," Haas wrote. "The complete FDLE report provides critical context and information that leads to my conclusion that no charges are appropriate against any Lakeland police officer involved in this arrest."

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Haas wrote that Glover’s actions justified the officers' use of force. He wrote that Glover refused officers’ commands, fought them and violently prevented them from removing a satchel strapped to his body that they had reason to believe might contain a weapon.

The summary said that Glover put an officer in a headlock, though that action could not be seen on either of the videos posted. The Lakeland Police Department had purchased body cameras shortly before Glover's arrest, but the Street Crimes Unit had not yet received them, LPD said.

The Ledger submitted a request Friday morning to LPD on the status of its internal investigation.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Prosecutors dismiss charges against Antwan Glover in 2022 traffic stop