As suspicions grow, Madison County investigators piece together tales of a drunken melee (Part 4)

Matt Boster

Viewed: 8717

Posted by: Matt Boster
Date: Dec 05 2014 8:55 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- On Dec. 14, 2012, just two days after Deputy Justin Watson testifies that he did not know the guy who attacked him during a routine traffic stop, assistant district attorney Randy Dill places a call to the sheriff's department.

The prosecutor wants to know if audio or video recordings exist of the Robert Bryant traffic stop. Sgt. Chad Brooks tells him that the dash-cam wasn't working that August night.

"ADA Dill then asked me, 'What's the deal with this traffic stop?'" Brooks will later write. "I explained to Dill that over the course of my 14 years of law enforcement, I do not recall an offender so difficult to restrain or calm as Mr. Bryant."

At this point, in the days after the hearing, with a prosecutor asking questions and suspicions mounting within the department, Lt. Mike Salomonsky takes up the investigation.

Salomonsky

In August, when Salomonsky had arrived at the traffic stop, Bryant was on the ground in handcuffs. Brooks and other deputies were trying to hold him down. Watson had blood on his face. To Salomonsky, nothing seemed outside the normal course of police duties.

But Brooks was suspicious. Four days later, Brooks called Salomonsky at home. On a hunch, Brooks had interviewed a dispatcher who admitted helping Watson track down the name and vehicle of Robert Bryant.

Click Here to read the rest of Part 4 and Part 5.

<- back