Corey Joseph Marioneaux Jr.’s traumatized family has hired a high-powered Los Angeles attorney to represent its interests after one of his children was injured while in police care.
Marioneaux, of Pensacola, faces attempted murder charges for firing at police officers who broke down his door earlier this month to serve a warrant. Both of the young children were in their father’s house with him when police barged in.
James Bryant, of The Cochran Firm, told the Pensacola News Journal he’s representing Moiya Dixon, who has two children with Marioneaux.
Bryant said that he will file this coming week to be Marioneaux’s lawyer and will seek to have charges against him dismissed during a February 25 arraignment. “I cannot understand why they are charging this man who has no criminal history, who was not a person of interest and was not involved in whatever they were looking for,” Bryant told the newspaper.
On February 3, the Pensacola Police Department SWAT team, armed with a search warrant, used a battering ram to enter Marioneaux’s home, according to WEAR-TV. Marioneaux, who family members said did not know the intruders were cops, fired at the officers. The 24-year-old was arrested and has since been charged with attempted murder on a law enforcement officer. He remains free on a $50,000 bond.
The search, police said, was part of an ongoing investigation into an officer-involved shooting in Pensacola in January, WEAR-TV reported. Police have not said whether Marioneaux is somehow connected to that case.
Marioneaux‘s family on Friday reached out to Vin Durant, president of the Pensacola branch of the NAACP. He told theGrio that he wants to gather more information before making a statement, but he did note two areas of concern — the conditions under which authorities executed the search warrant and the injuries that Marioneaux’s 1-year-old son, Cylen, sustained after the incident.
Dixon retained Bryant, in part, to determine whether she’ll sue the city and police department over the injuries her son suffered. Bryant, according to his firm’s website, has obtained nearly $20 million for his clients through arbitration, jury verdicts, and settlements.
Dixon told the News Journal her son was unrecognizable. “He had bruises all over his face. I couldn’t find his forehead. His lips and his nose bloody, it was disgusting,” she said.
Bryant also claimed police tried to cover up the child’s accident by asking Dixon not to take her son to the hospital since EMS had already checked him.
Family members, when reached by theGrio on Saturday, declined comment.
Pensacola police said they’ve opened an internal investigation and they can’t comment. Police previously told WEAR-TV that authorities placed Cylen and his 3-year-old brother, Caion, in a police car with an officer. Cylen, police said, fell out when the officer opened the door.
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