Overview
- Erika McGriff, 39, was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting with violence, and operating a vehicle with a revoked license after a struggle outside IDEA Bassett Charter School on Oct. 7.
- Body-camera and bystander videos show the officer throwing McGriff to the ground, using a headlock and pulling her hair, while the sheriff says she punched and bit the officer, leaving visible bite marks.
- At a Tuesday news conference, McGriff spoke briefly about picking up her 9-year-old in the rain as attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels alleged excessive force and demanded that all charges be dropped.
- Two bystanders, Anita Gibson and Jasmine Jefferson, were the first in Jacksonville charged under Florida’s Halo Law, which attorneys call unconstitutional and selectively enforced, saying any warning came after the arrest had ended.
- Crump and Daniels urged State Attorney Melissa Nelson to review unedited footage and the charging decisions, as the Sheriff’s Office stood by its account and parents described children traumatized by witnessing the arrest.