Federal charges won’t be filed against former APD officer in bodycam footage

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday that federal charges will not be filed against former Asheville Police Department officer Christopher Hickman, the man who appears in the leaked bodycam footage that surfaced in the spring of 2018.

Hickman still faces multiple criminal charges in Buncombe County, including felony assault by strangulation, misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury and misdemeanor communicating threats.

When Rush tried to run, the video shows Hickman brought him down and repeatedly punched him in the head.

An arrest warrant for Hickman notes that he struck Rush multiple times, causing abrasions and swelling to his head. The warrant says Rush lost consciousness when Hickman placed his arm on his throat and applied pressure.

The incident didn’t come to light until February 2018, when the Asheville Citizen-Times obtained the leaked video and broke the story.

Hickman stopped Rush because Rush was jaywalking.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office states that “after careful examination,” it has determined that “the evidence does not give rise to a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights laws.”

Thomas Amburgey, Hickman’s attorney, said in a statement that Hickman is pleased with the federal government’s decision to decline prosecution, and that Hickman “never intended to violate the civil rights of Mr. Rush.”

“I am confident that when a jury hears all relevant evidence in this case, he will be acquitted,” Amburgey wrote in the statement.

We spoke with Henderson County District Attorney Greg Newman to get his insight on the federal government’s decision not to file civil rights charges against Hickman.

“They are having to see if the evidence would support a civil rights violation, and if they carried it to trial, would they be able to support that charge,” Newman said.

In this case, Newman says it appears that U.S. Attorney Andrew Murrow did not have enough proof.

“It can be difficult. Sometimes impossible,” Newman acknowledged.

That’s because there is a lot that prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

“The question becomes, are the officers acting within the scope of performing their duties?” Newman said.

Newman says that can be difficult to answer, because police officers typically deal with situations where the use of force might be necessary.

“So the question becomes very subjective in terms of are they acting properly, and within proper scope of their job,” he said.

Newman says that another difficult thing for a prosecutor to prove is intent.

“Someone’s intent is always going to be paramount in these cases. Its an essential element in anything we have to prove, and you have to have evidence to support that.”