A Fairfax County police officer was found not guilty of misdemeanor assault on Friday afternoon, following a jury trial.

Body camera footage showed the officer, Tyler Timberlake, who is white, placing his knee on a man’s back and using a stun gun on him in June 2020, about a week after video of the murder of George Floyd touched off a nationwide protest movement against police brutality.

The man tased by Timberlake, La Monta Gladney, who is Black, was hospitalized for his injuries and then released. Officers were responding to “a man in crisis wandering the roadway” in the county’s Mount Vernon district, according to a police department statement. Video of the incident shows Gladney walking around before officers approached, though it does not appear that he was threatening anyone.

Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said he was disappointed in the jury’s decision to acquit Timberlake.

“It is notoriously hard to prosecute a case like this, but my standard of prosecuting a case isn’t whether it’s easy or hard,” Descano said in a statement on the outcome. “My standard is doing what I think is right to hold people, including law enforcement, accountable for their actions.”

In 2020, then-police chief Edwin Roessler conducted an administrative probe into the incident, and Timberlake and other officers were taken off duty. Ultimately, Timberlake was charged with three misdemeanor counts of assault and battery, and prosecutors sought a grand jury indictment and jury trial.

Current Fairfax police chief Kevin Davis said the department would close the administrative investigation.

“We understand and accept the scrutiny associated with our profession.  Our commitment to deliver world class and constitutional policing services to our residents remains our top priority,” Davis said in a statement to WAMU/DCist. 

A spokesperson for the department said Friday evening Timberlake remains on administrative leave.

In the trial, Timberlake’s lawyers suggested that he had mistaken Gladney for someone else — Timberlake can be heard calling the man “Anthony” in the body camera footage — and that Gladney was under the influence of drugs during the incident, according to news reports. Last year, defense attorneys also accused prosecutors of withholding evidence, though the commonwealth’s attorney’s office said they had released what was required, The Washington Post reported at the time.

The Fairfax police department has a history of racial disparities in its use of force. A report that examined policing practices between January 2020 and June 2021 found that the department used force on Black people at a rate higher than that of white people in Mount Vernon, the area where Timberlake tased Gladney.  In 2019, Black people were involved in nearly 46% of the police use-of-force incidents but made up just 10% of the county’s population.

Descano, who was elected on a platform of criminal justice reform in 2019, said his office would continue to try to hold people, including law enforcement, accountable.

“True justice goes beyond any one case. True justice will be achieved when my Black and brown neighbors don’t have to fear for their well-being when they leave their homes,” he said. “Until that day becomes a reality, the work continues.”

This story has been updated to reflect that Tyler Timberlake remains on administrative leave. 

Previously: 

Fairfax County Police Officer Arrested, Charged With Assault After Use Of Force Incident

Fairfax County Police Disproportionately Use Force On Black People, New Report Shows