JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An appeal filed by the legal team for a woman found guilty of resisting an officer in an incident that resulted in her front teeth being broken has been rejected.
A jury found Brittany Williams, 31, guilty of a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer without violence after a video of the incident went viral last year.
She was initially charged with felony battery on a law enforcement officer.
Her appeal for the lesser charge was dismissed by the First District Court of Appeal this week, documents show.
The incident began May 13, 2020, when Williams approached and officer whose squad car was parked in the driveway of her 21st Street home. According to the officer, he was checking emails when she asked him to leave. The officer responded that he was finishing up and would leave soon. In the police report, the officer said she “immediately threw a spoon with an unknown green substance on it at me while I was sitting in my car.”
The officer's name is redacted from police reports, citing Marsy's Law.
Williams then went inside and called 911, telling dispatchers she was scared for her life.
"There is an officer parked in my yard, in my front yard in my driveway yelling at me for no reason and refusing to move, and I need him to move now," she told the dispatcher. "This is my house. I don’t know who he is."
“I do not trust him. I don’t trust white officers, especially males, and I’m here and I’m a female and young by myself. This is my home and he’s telling me he’s not about to leave. How dare he? And if I pull my gun on him and he shoot me and kill me, then, what I’m a do?”
“Ma’am, don’t do that,” the operator responded.
Later in the call, the 911 operator tells Williams to put the gun away while officers arrive. "Just to keep the situation diffused, just put the gun up for me. Okay?” The dispatcher asked.
“I will,” replied Williams.
On body camera footage, as the first officer waits in his squad car for other officers to arrive, dispatch can be heard relaying that message. "The complainant saying she will pull a gun on the officer if he's approaching her ... but told receiving she's going to put it away."
Moments later, when a second officer arrives and approaches Williams on her front step, Williams can be heard screaming.
The first officer's body cam footage shows Williams on the phone on her front porch when the second officer approaches. She backs away and starts to run inside when he grabs and tackles her. The officer would later claim that she kicked him.
The second officer's body cam footage shows her being taken, handcuffed, to a squad car. "You're just mad because I'm a black girl," she tells the officer. He responds, "No you battered a law enforcement officer. You kicked me."
"I battered you?!" she shrieks. "I kicked you ?!"
A third officer's body camera footage does not show the incident because his camera immediately dislodged in the struggle.
Several other officers arrive and remain on scene for some time, speaking to family members and attempting to explain what happened. Regarding her broken teeth, an officer tells William's aunt, "she did that herself."
"How?" the aunt asks.
"Either when she went to the ground or when she slapped her face on the door."
"How is she going to slap her face on the door?" the aunt says.