June 13--TAMPA -- Cortnee Brantley says she was beaten during a lengthy interrogation when detectives were trying to find out about the slaying of two Tampa Police officers.
But the beating did not come from police investigators, Brantley said; it came from her own mother.
Brantley was driving the car pulled over by Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab in East Tampa on June 29, 2010, authorities said. Her passenger, Dontae Morris, is awaiting trial on charges he shot the two officers during the traffic stop.
After the slaying, Morris became the subject of a four-day manhunt involving hundreds of investigators from more than 15 local, state and federal agencies.
While Morris was on the loose, detectives questioned Brantley for more than five hours, according to federal court filings.
Officials have said Brantley refused to tell the detectives the name of her passenger. So detectives turned to her mother for help.
Police and Brantley differ on what happened next.
According to defense pleadings filed Tuesday, detectives "allowed Ms. Brantley's mother to enter into the interrogation room where Ms. Brantley was being questioned, and thereupon inflict closed-fist punches and open hand contact against Ms. Brantley in an effort to extract statements from Ms. Brantley."
Tampa Police spokeswoman Laura McElroy had a different take.
"We typically don't comment on pending cases," McElroy said. "But we want to clarify what happened in the interrogation room."
When Brantley refused to talk, her mother and grandmother "felt that they could reason with" her, and asked to speak to her, McElroy said.
"When she continued to refuse to talk, her mother became very frustrated and in a moment of frustration reached out and slapped her daughter," McElroy said. "The detective never saw that coming. He immediately interceded and stopped her from slapping her again."
Enlisting family members is "a technique we utilize" in hostage negotiations and interrogations, McElroy said. Having a family member become violent in the process is "highly unusual, and that's why the detective never saw it coming."
The defense's description surprised former federal prosecutor John Fitzgibbons, of Tampa, who is not involved in the case.
"If it occurred, it's one of the most bizarre interrogation techniques I've ever heard of," Fitzgibbons said. "If it happened, I would expect that the police would have filed battery charges against the mother at a minimum. And second, if it happened, it could raise serious questions about the validity of the interrogation."
McElroy said the mother was not charged with assaulting her daughter.
Ordinarily, defense allegations of this sort might be raised in an effort to block a jury from hearing evidence a defendant confessed. But there's no indication Brantley confessed to anything.
Fitzgibbons, then, said he wonders why the defense is raising the issue.
"What are they trying to accomplish here if there's no statement?"
Brantley's attorney, Grady Irvin, says in court filings that nearly six hours of Brantley's interrogation was recorded, but it's not clear if the alleged encounter with her mother was captured.
Irvin is asking a judge to allow the defense to have transcripts of the grand jury testimony of two Tampa detectives who questioned Brantley, saying Brantley has a "well-founded belief" that the detectives told grand jurors about "the actions of Ms. Brantley's mother."
Irvin also is asking a judge to bar the prosecution from presenting testimony during Brantley's trial about statements evidently made during the interrogation. These include a comment that the shooting of the two officers was "a horrific incident" and "one of the most tragic events that has ever happened in this city."
Brantley's mother, Mischell Washington, could not be reached for comment.
Washington and Brantley's grandmother have vouched for her in court, securing her release from jail while she awaits trial by agreeing to forfeit $25,000 if she fails to appear for hearings or her trial.
Brantley is scheduled to stand trial in federal court July 16 on charges she failed to report Morris was committing the crime of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Morris is scheduled to go on trial in state court July 30 on another murder charge in the 2010 fatal shooting of Rodney G. Jones, 42, outside a Tampa nightclub.
Prosecutors say in court documents that Brantley and Morris exchanged text messages after the officers' shootings:
Morris told Brantley to "just lean bak stay loyal."
"Of course," she responded, according to authorities. "Til death do us part."
Copyright 2012 - Tampa Tribune, Fla.
