Charges dropped against man subjected to rough arrest by Broward Sheriff's Office

A violent arrest by Broward County deputies caught on body cameras now has prosecutors weighing whether to bring criminal charges against any of the deputies involved.

Citing what it called police “violence” of a “concerning intensity,” the state dropped all charges against the man who was arrested.

But now it’s the deputies who could find out soon whether they face any charges or discipline.

It all stems from the July 15, 2022 arrest of Ka’traughan Dones, who resisted commands from Deputy James Morejon that he sit on the ground while the deputy investigated a call to Dones’ ex-girlfriend’s home.

“I’m going to tell you one more time: sit on the f--ing ground,” Morejon told Dones, as the deputy’s bodycam captured the encounter.

“I live here,” Dones replied.

“I don’t give a f--,” Morejon said. “Stop banging on the f--ing door.”

“It’s my crib, n--,” said Dones, who in fact did not live there, but his ex-girlfriend had called police to have him removed from the property.

“Basically, I found out he cheated on me, so I left his house,” she told Morejon. “He wouldn’t let me go in the house so that’s when he pushed me.”

That was enough for Morejon to move in and try to detain Dones, whom he asked for identification.

“No, I ain’t got no ID on me,” Dones said.

 “Okay, turn the f-- around … You wanna play games?” Morejon ordered.

Dones did not follow instructions and “pulled his arms away from me forcefully in an attempt to evade me from handcuffing him,” Morejon wrote in Dones’ arrest report.

And that’s when things got physical, as captured on police body-worn camera obtained by the NBC6 Investigators.

Soon Dones was taken to the ground, and can be heard saying, muffled, repeatedly: “I can’t breathe.”

“Shut the f--up,” a deputy says.

After being handcuffed lying on the ground, another deputy says, “He’s going to jail. Put him in the back of the car.”

That’s when the video appears to show Morejon taking his own handcuffs and wrapping them around his knuckles.

Seconds later, when Dones is brought to his feet, Morejon strikes him in the face with the fist holding the handcuffs.

Morejon’s report states “Once Dones came to his feet, he again pulled away from deputies in an apparent attempt to flee or evade arrest.”

The result of the blow to Dones’ face can be seen in his subsequent mugshot: a blackened left eye.

He was charged with resisting an officer with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer.

But when Broward’s Office of the Public Defender saw the video, they sought and obtained a dismissal of the charges.

“I was incredibly offended by the use of that level of force by law enforcement … to use handcuffs as brass knuckles to try to physically harm someone and potentially knock them out,” Public Defender Gordon Weekes told the NBC6 Investigators.

The defense wasn’t the only ones offended.

So were prosecutors, who dropped Dones’ charges in July 2023 – a full year after the arrest. The reason, an assistant state attorney explained in a memo, was that the body camera video “revealed evidence of a violent and concerning intensity” against Dones -- so much so there would be “no reasonable likelihood of conviction.”

“They should have a lot more than just concern about the intensity of the violence,” said Weekes. “That officer was trying to inflict some serious harm.”

The sheriff’s office declined to make Morejon available for comment but confirmed it has referred the matter to the Broward State Attorney for review. It also has reassigned Morejon and two other deputies to administrative duties, pending a decision by the state attorney on whether to seek criminal charges and an internal affairs investigation.

Weekes notes no decision has been made either criminally or internally more than 15 months after the incident -- a delay and deference he says is not afforded to criminal suspects.

“When it comes to law enforcement officers … it seems we have to take years and months of review before you make a determination,” Weekes said.

As for Morejon, he did suffer at least one repercussion from his encounter with Dones. Asked on camera by a colleague if he was okay, he can be seen shaking the hand he used to punch Dones and replied, “Might’ve broken my knuckle” when his fist and handcuffs contacted Dones’ face. Records released do not reveal him requiring medical treatment.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office won’t comment on ongoing internal affairs investigations but produced documents showing none of the deputies involved have been disciplined in connection with the Dones’ arrest.