Video contradicts deputy’s version of physical encounter

Published: Updated:
Collier County Sheriff’s Office patrol vehicles & Collier County mobile command center.

NAPLES, Fla. Deputy pulls motorist over.

Motorist and deputy get into a physical altercation.

Motorist is charged with assaulting deputy.

Charges are dropped against motorist – for the second time.

Recently released video of a traffic stop involving Collier County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Kasey Wingo and Robert Dale Harris – taken from inside Harris’ vehicle – showed a confrontation different from what Wingo told supervisors.

“Prosecutors try to back the officers,” said Lee Hollander, Harris’ defense attorney. “I mean they lean that way, obviously, and for good reason. But, sometimes [they] just can’t do it.”

Video evidence

Wingo was named in a lawsuit Harris filed against the sheriff’s office in Sept. 2016.

Deputies claimed Harris assaulted them after he was found behind a storage lot in 2014.

State prosecutors threw out the case.

The two men encountered each again in Dec. 2016 on Palm Spring Boulevard.

Wingo stopped Harris for having another vehicle’s plates on his car.

Wingo asked for Harris’ license, registration and insurance, but after Harris said he was contacting his attorney, the situation escalated quickly.

Wingo claimed Harris initiated the escalation.

“[Harris] reached through the open window with both hands and pulled the door shut…Robert leaned back in the vehicle pulling me into the vehicle with him,” he said in an official report.

Click here to read the reports related to the traffic stop.

But a camera inside Harris’ vehicle told a different story. Footage showed Wingo opening Harris’ door, then entering the vehicle after Harris said he was calling his attorney.

Here’s the full video (the time stamp is not accurate due to the camera settings):

Copyright ©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.