By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on December 23, 2024
My 11-page blistering report to the Montgomery city council on March 15, 1983, detailed the severe beatings and torture that Montgomery police officers administered to three black arrestees --Willie James Taylor, Worrie Taylor, and Johnny Taylor – at the City Jail on the night of February 27, 1983.
According to the report:
“The police abuse at headquarters included …. the kicking and hitting of the arrestees; the hitting of at least one person with a telephone; hand chops to the neck; the hitting of one person with a flashlight; and the infamous ‘hanging technique’.”
The “hanging technique” entailed hanging an arrestee by his necktie until he almost faints, then slapping him to consciousness and repeating the process.
The report also found that police officers put guns to the heads of at least two arrestees, who were told, “nigger …. we’re going to kill you tonight.”
Police officers beat these three Taylor men for hours. The beatings constituted swift and sure retribution for what had occurred hours earlier on Todd Road in the Madison Park community of Montgomery, Alabama.
Taylor family members were arrested at the home of Annie Bell Taylor, a respected black Madison Park resident and matriarch of the Taylor family, whose funeral had been held earlier that day.
Prior to this incident, none of the Taylor family members had a criminal record of any kind. All of them had good jobs in Michigan and Ohio and all of them were respected and productive citizens in their communities.
A Tearful Funeral Experience Turned into a Living Nightmare
I investigated the highly publicized Todd Road incident, starting on the night Taylor family members were arrested.
The radio traffic on the police scanner in my home was unbelievable. Shots were fired earlier that night inside a house on Todd Road. Two officers had been hit and seriously wounded by gunfire. The officers had been beaten and tortured by the occupants of the house during some sort of melee.
Twenty-three black family members, who were described as armed and dangerous, had been taken into police custody. Eleven of them were eventually arrested and faced 66 serious felony charges.
Based upon the radio traffic, this incident seemed so bizarre. I had to find out for myself what was going on. So, I went downtown to police headquarters.
When I arrived at the City Jail that night, I flashed my city councilman’s badge and demanded to see three arrestees – Willie James Taylor, Worrie Taylor, and Johnny Taylor. I knew their names from the radio traffic. Police officers brought the men into the visitor’s room. I instructed the officers to leave me alone with them.
The three men were frightened and shaking. It was obvious that each one of them had been physically abused. Their eyes were still red from crying. They immediately told me about the beatings and showed me how they were administered. I told them that I was there as a city councilman to find out what had happened earlier that night at the Taylor home on Todd Road.
My City Council Reports on the Todd Road Incident Sparked Outrage Inside City Hall
I conducted a thorough investigation over the next two weeks and issued a series of three detailed reports to the city council about the Todd Road incident. As expected, the original police department report about the incident was riddled with lies.
My initial March 15, 1983, report, which focused on the beatings and torture of the male Taylor family members, produced the most outrage. The report was based upon: (a) jailhouse interviews with the male Taylor family arrestees on the night of February 27th, (b) interviews with other jailed inmates over the following days, and (c) corroborating information I had received from five high ranking Montgomery police officers, all of whom spoke to me under assurances that they would remain anonymous.
Four of my police officer informants were white and one was black.
Over the next few months, the Todd Road incident escalated into growing police scandal in state and national news media circles.
My Grand Jury Appearance, Contempt Citation, and $500 Per Day Fine
My city council reports on the Todd Road incident infuriated Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar. He pressured Montgomery District Attorney Jimmy Evans into calling me before a local grand jury to find out the names of the police officers who provided me with information on the beatings and torture of Taylor family members.
On July 18, 1983, I appeared before a local grand jury, but refused to divulge the identity of the police officers in question. At the time, I knew that a female grand juror was leaking secret grand jury testimony to the city's police chief. I invoked my privilege under Montgomery's Mayor-Council Act to keep my police sources of information confidential.
Later that day, I was hauled into the courtroom of Montgomery County Circuit Judge Joseph Phelps and ordered to identify my police informants. I respectfully declined to do so out of fear for the lives and safety of these brave officers. I knew they would be fired or killed for helping me expose the beatings and torture of the Taylor family arrestees.
Judge Phelps held me in contempt of court and fined me $500 per day until I divulged the names of these police officers.
I appealed my contempt citation and daily fines to the Alabama Supreme Court. On September 23, 1983, the Supreme Court ruled, 8-1, that I had to identify the police officers in question.
Naming My Police Sources
The next week, I appeared before the Montgomery grand jury, again. Without any privilege protection that permitted me to withhold their names, I was required to identify my police informants to the grand jury. They were: (a) Capt. T. J. McClain, head of the police department's Internal Affairs Division, (b) Maj. Kelly Stevens, (c) Lt. Sidney Williams, (d) Sgt. Lonnie Benjamin, and (e) Sgt. Harold Hicken.
I also identified these officers and provided the substance of their information in subsequent court hearings in the case.
For example, Capt. McClain had told me the interrogating officers, "beat the shit out of them (the suspects)." Sgt. Benjamin said police headquarters that night "was like a racketball court" during the questioning of the suspects. "They were bouncing off the walls," said Benjamin. "You could hear them screaming all the way down to (Maj. E. B.) Alford's office," he said.
Maj. Steven, Lt. Williams, and Sgt. Hicken provided additional details of the beatings and torture of the Taylor family members and confirmed that the beatings abruptly stopped when word spread that I had entered the police department building.
Sergeants Benjamin and Hicken were promptly fired by Mayor Folmar. Capt. McClain retired and Maj. Stevens resigned, immediately. Lt. Williams, the lone black officer in the group, remained with the police department under the protection of a court order in a federal case where he was the named plaintiff for class of veteran black officers who sought promotions above the rank of corporal.
The firing of Benjamin and Hicken was upheld in by a local federal judge but reversed on appeal.
Epilogue
Due to my compliance with the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, my contempt citation and $500 per day fines were set aside.
My investigative reports and court testimony, along with the brilliant work of the Taylors' criminal defense teams, resulted in the dismissal of all charges against seven family members, and all kidnapping and robbery charges against the other four. The attempted murder felony charges against these four Taylor family members were reduced to simple misdemeanor assault charges. After the defendants pleaded “no contest” to the assault charges and paid a small fine, their legal nightmare was over.
No Montgomery police officer was ever charged with a federal or state crime for beating and torturing Willie James Taylor, Worrie Taylor, and Johnny Taylor while they were in police custody.
On April 28, 2014, and February 12, 2018, I published (and republished) an article titled, “The Todd Road Incident: Funeral Mourners Portrayed as Vicious Criminals.” My article summarized the true facts and circumstances surrounding the Todd Road incident that were first presented to the Montgomery city council on March 15, 1983.
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