A federal jury on Friday failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of a former Citronelle police chief accused of using excessive force on a suspect following a high-speed chase in 2021.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office now will have to decide whether to retry Tyler Norris. U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose set a tentative trial date for April. Norris, 44, of Grove Hill, also has a pending assault charge in Mobile County Circuit Court.
Prosecutors alleged that Norris used unjustified force – technically, deprivation of rights under color of law. They also charged him with witness tampering based on allegations that he misled investigators about what happened. The jury hung on both counts after deliberating for parts of two days. Defense attorney Jeff Deen said his client acted appropriately after the suspect led police on a high-speed chase that ended in a school parking lot.
“He used reasonable force in getting him out of the car based on the circumstances,” he said. “You had a high-speed chase. Everybody’s adrenaline was going. And the guy needed to get out of the car.”“It’s our contention that the way the chief perceived it, that the guy was resisting arrest and not getting out of the vehicle,” he said.
Deen said other officers started the pursuit on June 30, 2021, after noticing the car had an expired tag. The driver was on probation for another offense and threw a bag of marijuana out of the window during the chase, according to Deen.The Department of Justice has made cracking down on abuses by law enforcement officers a priority. In September, former Citronelle Officer Jason Scott Mead
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