A Raleigh bar ID check ended with two men on the floor. Now the DA wants to know if officers broke the law
Two patrons at least 21 were handcuffed after a Raleigh bar ID check. Now investigators are reviewing whether officers acted lawfully.
What was meant to be an underage drinking operation inside a Raleigh bar has turned into a criminal review of the officers involved. Surveillance footage showed two patrons being taken to the ground and handcuffed during an ID check, and prosecutors are now sorting through sharply different accounts of what happened.
The encounter happened early Friday at Alchemy bar in Raleigh's Glenwood South district. Surveillance video showed two men being brought to the floor and handcuffed after plainclothes officers approached them during an operation aimed at underage drinking.
Authorities said both patrons were at least 21 years old. They were later released without charges. Officials said dozens of other people were cited as part of the same operation.
The officers involved were from Wake County Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Wake County Sheriff's Office. What has made the episode stand out is not only that the two men were old enough to be there, but that the footage has left key questions unanswered instead of clearing them up.
Why the footage is not settling the argument
Wake County Alcoholic Beverage Control Law Enforcement Chief Scott Broadwell said the men refused to show identification when officers asked. He defended the officers' conduct and said their actions were justified.
But Broadwell was not inside the bar during the encounter. He said he was at the operation's command center in the parking lot and was relying on what the officers involved told him. After later reviewing the surveillance video, he said it matched an officer's account.
Even so, the video has a major limitation. It does not include audio, which means it cannot fully confirm what was said before the physical struggle began.
People at the bar have challenged parts of the law enforcement version. Alchemy general manager Derrick Andrews said he did not realize the group were law enforcement officers until after the struggle, when he saw identification pulled from beneath their civilian shirts. Alchemy owner Dan Lovenheim said what he saw on the video, along with what he heard afterward, suggested one of the men appeared scared and confused rather than combative.
Those conflicting descriptions are a big reason the case has moved beyond a simple review of bar security footage. The central issue is no longer just what the camera shows, but what happened immediately before officers physically intervened.
What investigators will examine next
The Wake County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that it had opened a review. On Thursday, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said she had also asked the sheriff's office to conduct a separate investigation for her office to examine.
Freeman said her office will decide whether any criminal law was violated. She said investigators need to speak with public witnesses, the bar's owners and law enforcement officers before reaching a conclusion. They also need to find out whether any additional video or other evidence exists.
She said officers are allowed to use force in some circumstances, including to bring someone into compliance or custody. The legal question is whether the force used here was justified, or whether it crossed the line into assault under criminal law.
Freeman also made clear that the criminal review is separate from the sheriff's office internal process. That internal review is expected to focus on whether agency policies were broken, while the prosecutor's office considers whether any laws were broken.
She said cases like this are usually resolved within 60 to 90 days, once investigators have interviewed the people who were there and gathered the necessary information. She also said her office was not going to prejudge the outcome.
The two patrons are being represented by North Carolina civil rights attorney Abraham Rubert-Schewel. As of Thursday, no lawsuit had been filed. Freeman said any possible civil case would be separate from both the criminal review and the sheriff's office internal investigation.
