On Monday police charged 42 year old Wilford Middleton for aggravated assault, damage to property, and resisting arrest. Those are serious charges but it was a bizarre story. The police report said that for no apparent reason, Middleton approached them, cursed them out, pulled a knife on them, and then shattered the side window of a Prado. Well Middleton says it is a complete fabrication. Middleton says he was heading home to his house on Campus Avenue when Sergeant Nicholas paloma and another officer stopped him. He says he may have looked suspicious because he had on a warm cap, because of the cold front. But nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. He says he was then beaten, punched, and choked. And as for the allegations of pulling a knife on the officers and damaging the windshields – he disputes those vigorously.
Keith Swift,
Did you pull a knife at the police officers?
Wilford Middleton,
“No sir that is a lie. When they knew I had a knife I was already handcuffed behind my back. They knew I had a knife in my pocket but the small knife is to sharpen my carpenter pencil. Like I told you, I am an carpenter.”
Keith Swift,
How did the glass on the Prado got shattered?
Wilford Middleton,
“When they picked up my bicycle, and I was already in the vehicle with my hands cuffed, they threw in the bicycle in the Prado. The front of my bicycle knocked me in my head back. Now that is the way how I think the glass broke for the Prado.”
Keith Swift,
So what are you going to do? You’ve been charged with I think six charges.. What are you going to do?
Wilford Middleton,
“Well I am going to tell the truth in the court and god knows he doesn’t like ugly. I know I have a case against them,. They don’t have a case against me but when that time comes for me to fight my case, I will do that.”
Middleton is out on bail. He says he has filed a complaint with the Police’s Internal Affairs Department.
