BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — As trial nears for accused Buffalo police officer Corey Krug, federal prosecutors are seeking to introduce more evidence of alleged excessive force by the officer.
The government, in recently filed court papers, plans to call witnesses who will speak about alleged “prior bad acts” by Krug from 2004, 2006 and 2007. The allegations were first reported by The Buffalo News.
The incidents involve an alleged 2004 assault on a handcuffed arrestee, when prosecutors say Krug stood on the suspect’s back, “jumped up and down,” then picked him up and slammed him against a van. Krug “later used an ice scraper” to scrape the suspect’s blood off the window of the van, prosecutors said.
The 2006 incident involved a domestic dispute in which Krug allegedly punched a handcuffed man in the jaw while he was already in a police car, prosecutors said.
In response, Krug -- through court papers filed by defense attorneys Nicholas Romano and Terry Connors -- called the new allegations “stale and unsubstantiated” and said the government is trying to “pile on” to beef up a “weak” case.
Krug “has worked the toughest beats and accepted all the rough assignments” for the police department, his lawyers wrote, adding that Krug made nearly 1,700 arrests in 20 years.
Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara will rule on whether the government will be allowed to introduce the new evidence.
Krug is already on trial for other incidents of alleged police brutality, including a 2014 incident caught on tape by a 7 Eyewitness News photographer on Chippewa Street early Thanksgiving morning.
The video of that incident shows Krug hitting a man with his baton and pushing him to a car and then to the ground.
The trial is set to begin Jan. 28.
