Ex-cops acquitted of manslaughter charges for Mathew Ajibade’s death
The two former Georgia deputies who were charged in relation to Mathew Ajibade's death in police custody have been acquitted of the manslaughter charges brought up against them, but they have been found guilty of all other charges brought against them.
The two former Georgia deputies who were charged in relation to Mathew Ajibade’s death in police custody have been acquitted of the manslaughter charges brought up against them, but they have been found guilty of all other charges brought against them.
Ajibade had been arrested after what family described as “a bipolar episode,” and he was taken into police custody, where he was restrained in a chair in an isolation room. Having been restrained, Ajibade was then subjected to tremendous cruelty by the deputies as he was repeatedly Tasered in the groin and then left overnight in the room. When officers returned in the morning to check on him, he was dead.
Jason Kenny, the officer who used the stun gun, was found guilty of cruelty to a prisoner, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. Maxine Kenny was found guilty of falsifying records. Gregory Brown, an attending nurse, was acquitted earlier this week of manslaughter charges because of errors made during the investigation and prosecution of the case.
Ajibade’s cousin, Chris Oladapo, said that the jury’s decision was not unsurprising but was disappointing. “I knew that that same system that failed Mathew would not be the system that got him justice. I had already warned my family not to expect anything,” he said. “We expected nothing, and we got nothing.”
