by Marek Mazurek, South Bend Tribune
This article was produced by the South Bend Tribune, a member of the ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in 2018. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.
A police officer in Elkhart, Indiana, 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 came 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 M.L. was unjustified and unlawful under the circumstances,” Newland said in his plea agreement, referring to Ledesma by his initials.
Jessica McBrier, a spokesperson 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 did not respond to an interview request.
Titus has pleaded not guilty and is 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 incident in November 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.
The video shows Ledesma, seated and wearing handcuffs, while Newland, Titus and other officers stand nearby.
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At one point Ledesma spits toward Newland. Titus and Newland immediately punch Ledesma in the face, causing him to fall backward onto the floor. Titus and Newland then jump on top of him and punch him repeatedly.
“I placed M.L. in a chair with his hands handcuffed behind his back and behind the back of the chair,” Newland said in his plea deal. "M.L. 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 M.L. repeatedly with our fists. M.L. 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.
Five months after the incident, Elkhart’s then-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 had punched a handcuffed suspect.
The Tribune obtained the video of the beating after that meeting, and the discrepancy between the video and Windbigler’s description of the incident was cited by the city in its decision to suspend Windbigler. He later resigned.
Newland and Titus were originally charged with misdemeanor battery in Elkhart County in November 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.
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