Community Corner

Trial Begins for Cop Charged in Choking Death of Teen Following Vandalism

James Laboard, an off-duty Baltimore County police officer, is accused of applying a choke hold that lead to the death of 17-year-old Christopher Brown.

By Bryan P. Sears

Evidence introduced in Baltimore County Circuit Court Tuesday showed the sequence of events that prosecutors say lead to the death of a Randallstown youth at the hands of an off-duty Baltimore County police officer.

In opening their case, prosecutors presented several witnesses to the incident a year ago this month in which they say off-duty officer James Laboard tragically crossed paths with Christopher Brown, 17. But none saw the actual choking of which Brown is accused.

“James Laboard put Christopher Brown in a choke hold to gain control” following a vandalism incident near Laboard's home, said Deputy State’s Attorney Robin Coffin.

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Coffin added that “there’s hardly a mark on [Brown] externally” but that an autopsy found “deep bruising” on both sides and the rear of the teen’s neck.

Coffin called more than a dozen witnesses, including friends of Brown who said they were with him participating in neighborhood vandalism in the hours before his death. Family members, police and paramedics who arrived as Brown struggled to breathe also testified.

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Laboard is accused of chasing Brown over several blocks after someone threw a paving stone at a door to Laboard's Randallstown home. The chase took a circuitous route through the Randallstown neighborhood before ending on the lawn of a home on Starbrook Road—about a block from Laboard’s home, police said.

Coffin said Laboard caught Brown hiding in some bushes, confronted him and a struggle ensued. Brown later died.

Laboard faces both voluntary and involuntary manslaughter charges. Both charges are felonies and carry maximum prison sentences of 10 years.

Attorneys for Laboard told jurors that their client acted within the scope of his authority and training as a police officer.

“This is not a close case,” said Ezra Gollogly. “Chris Brown’s death, while tragic, is completely accidental.”

Coffin did not shy away from Brown’s involvement in events that lead up to the encounter with Laboard.

Four of the of the 13 prosecution witnesses called on Tuesday were teens who said Brown was with them the night he died and was involved in drug use and vandalism.

Armani Williams, a 15-year-old rising junior at Randallstown High, testified that he and Brown and six others met earlier in the night and that Brown and others went to a local store to buy a cigar that was later used to make a marijuana cigar known as a blunt.

Other teens testified that Brown provided the marijuana and that he came up with the idea to cause mischief in the neighborhood—something the teens called “rampaging” or “getting reckless.”

“I don’t think we planned it,” said Malik Jackson, 15, a freshman at Randallstown High School. “We didn’t have nothing else to do.”

The group proceeded to wander the neighborhood knocking over trash cans, vandalizing cars and participating in a form of "knicker knocking” that involves throwing rocks and bricks at doors instead of knocking and running away.

Malik Jackson, a 15-year-old freshman at Franklin High, said rocks and bricks were thrown rather than the traditional knocking on doors because it made a loud enough noise “so it would count in the game.”

It was during these incidents that police were first called to the neighborhood for a report of a loud, suspicious noise that turned out to be caused by something thrown at Laboard's home. It was during that initial investigation that officers where then called to the 4000 block of Starbrook Court for a report of two men fighting on a lawn.

In the call, Dorothy Paul, 79, told the 911 operator that one man was lying on top of another. A man’s voice, later identified as that of Laboard, can be heard telling Paul to tell the operator that he is an officer in need of assistance.

Several times during the call, Paul described Laboard as lying on top of the other individual later identified as Brown. At no point does she say that Laboard choked the teen. 

Other witnesses provided similar accounts, including Ofc. Timothy Davis, a nearly 12-year veteran of the force who is assigned to the Woodlawn Precinct with Laboard.

Davis was the first to arrive on the scene at Starbrook court and said he found Laboard holding Brown down with a hand on his back and a knee on his arm or shoulder.

A short time later, a second officer and Danielle Kennedy, Laboard’s girlfriend, arrive at the home. Kennedy testified that she recognized that Brown was having difficulty breathing and began administering CPR and later assisted in using an automated external defibrillator on the teen in an attempt to resuscitate him.

Brown was later taken to Northwest Hospital where he was declared dead.

Police photographs of Laboard show clear signs of a struggle including grass and dirt stains on the back of his shirt and scratches and bruises on his chest and shoulders.

The prosecution could wrap up its case Wednesday. Coffin said she plans to call witnesses including a doctor from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to testify about the autopsy of Brown and a training officer from the Baltimore County Police Department’s training academy.

The case is expected to go to the jury before the weekend.

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