How would you like your transgression to be viewed by millions of people on the web? Former NYPD officer Patrick Pogan, who is accused of assaulting cyclist Christopher Long during a Critical Mass ride, has to face being a YouTube sensation every day. In a video that has been viewed over two million times, the infamous officer appears to slam Long off his bike for no reason that is apparent to the viewer. Pogan faces up to four years of prison time if convicted of charges against him including assault and falsifying a report. His criminal defense lawyer will have to prove that Pogan had reason to forcefully detain the cyclist and that he did not intentionally change his story in his initial police reports of the incident to falsely incriminate Long. Pogan, who was only eleven days on the job when this unfortunate incident occurred, has already had to resign from the force. Hopefully his future holds only a career change instead of a criminal conviction for assault.
Pogan’s criminal defense attorney could use Pogan’s lack of experience to his advantage to reduce the assault charges and show that Pogan used bodily force as a form of self defense. Pogan asserts that he was originally attempting to detain Mr. Long because Long was riding with no hands, through a red light, in the middle of the street. Unfortunately for Long, the video of the alleged assault shows many other bicyclists doing the same thing. So what made Pogan single out Long? Pogan has testified that Long at first appeared to be evading Pogan, but when their trajectories started to cross, Pogan believed that Long was going to try to knock him over by riding through him. To protect himself, Pogan preemptively knocked Long off his bike before he was knocked over by the cyclist. Pogan could have made a rookie mistake and miscalculated Long’s intent, or he could have correctly interpreted the situation and taken the best course of action that he could in the moment. Either way, being charged with assault seems to be a drastic consequence. As his criminal defense lawyer should point out, everyone knows that you will make mistakes when starting a new job and that it takes experience to do a job perfectly.
As for the charges of falsifying business records and making false accusations, Pogan’s criminal defense lawyer will need to prove that Pogan did not mean to make conflicting statements but was caught up in the heat of the moment, probably had an adrenaline rush, and did not remember the altercation very clearly afterwards because it all happened so fast. Mr. Pogan is an upstanding citizen and prior to becoming a police officer had worked as an emergency medical technician. Although this incident and the YouTube video has demonized Mr. Pogan into an attack cop, hopefully his criminal defense attorney will be able to vindicate Mr. Pogan against his assault charges and show that he is still a good man to have around in an emergency.
