Charges dismissed in Durham police viral video case

Charges have been dropped against a Durham, North Carolina woman and others who claimed harassment, excessive force and racial bias after police entered their home in April.

Durham police incident

In April, Vera McGriff posted a video on Facebook. Unheard Voices re-shared the video which shows part of an incident.

McGriff says Durham police:

• illegally entered her home
• Falsely accused her son
• inappropriately used a Taser on individuals while two young children looked on.

The video went viral and was viewed about 200,000 times.

As reported by the NewsObserver:

Police officials said they were following up on a recent arrest tied to drug dealing. Officers said they entered the home April 8 after smelling marijuana and that two officers were assaulted.

McGriff was charged with maintaining a dwelling and resisting a public officer. Khadir Cherry was charged with two counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell and/or distribute, maintaining a dwelling, two counts of assault on a government official, resisting a public officer and possession of marijuana paraphernalia. Raynell Hall was charged with assault on a government official and resisting a public officer. Jahmon Cedeno was charged with assault on a government official.

The charges were dismissed in Durham County District Court on July 20. Scott Holmes, McGriff’s lawyer, said to the NewsObserver that it’s a common procedure for the District Attorney’s Office to dismiss charges in District Court in order to review whether to continue with felony charges in Superior Court.

Holmes said he believes the charges against McGriff are gone for good but doesn’t know whether prosecutors will drop the charges against the others.

“I am very pleased that the charges against Vera were dismissed,” he said.