Former Phila. officer testifies at his trial

A former Philadelphia police officer accused of falsely imprisoning a man in Center City last year took the stand Thursday, giving a version of events that clashed with that of his accusers.

In the second day of his trial on charges of false imprisonment, obstruction, and official oppression, Kevin Corcoran told a Common Pleas Court jury he stopped near the man and his friends only because he thought they had hailed him. Afterward, members of the group began provoking an altercation, he said.

He is accused of handcuffing Roderick King of Lansdale, an Air Force veteran, and driving him to an alley after an encounter that began when King's friends shouted at the officer, telling him he had made an illegal turn.

Corcoran said he first saw the group as he turned at 13th and Lombard Streets to head back to his South Philadelphia district. Hearing a member of the group call out to him with outstretched arms, Corcoran said he circled around.

Corcoran said that he met the group again on Rodman Street, and that two members of the group became unruly. One of King's friends, Thomas Stenberg, began cursing and shouting that the officer had almost struck him with his SUV, Corcoran said.

Stenberg and another man, Brian Jackson, Corcoran said, took steps toward his vehicle, with Jackson shouting that "he knew Mayor Nutter."

Corcoran said he moved toward King after he saw him pull an object from his pants that he later learned was a cellphone. Then, while he was searching King for weapons, King touched Corcoran on his arm and chest.

Corcoran's reaction, captured on video, was to scream, "Don't . . . touch me!" slap the phone from King's hands, and shove him into a patrol SUV.

Corcoran said that when they reached the police station at 11th and Winter Streets, King told him he had served in Iraq, working on F-15s. At that point, Corcoran said, he decided "to give him a break," and drove him back to his friends. When he drove back, he said, the group began cursing at him again.

"I told him, 'OK, pal, I'm just trying to get home safe,' " Corcoran said.

In his closing, Assistant District Attorney Michael Bonner noted that Corcoran did not mention the incident in his activity log.

"Paperwork means a paper trail, and that brings him back to Roderick King at 13th and Rodman Street," he said. "Officer Corcoran was not arresting Roderick King for a crime; he was, himself, committing a crime."

Corcoran's lawyer, Fortunato N. Perri, said King and his friends had minimized accounts of their alcohol consumption - at least some of them had had too much to drink - that night and were inconsistent in their descriptions of the incident.

Deliberations began Thursday and are scheduled to continue Friday.