Prosecutors dismiss charges against Antwan Glover in 2022 traffic stop

Antwan Glover, a Lakeland resident whose brutal December 2022 arrest was captured on video, will not face trial.

National Prosecutor’s Office on the 10th^vol Last week, the district court filed a document dismissing all charges against Glover. Assistant State’s Attorney Katherine Artman wrote that the allegations could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt based on the facts and circumstances.

Glover, 37, was charged with three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer and one count of resisting arrest with violence.

The Lakeland Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit stopped Glover on December 18, 2022, on West Ninth Street for allegedly not wearing a seat belt, and then, according to an arrest affidavit, officers saw marijuana in his car. Officers eventually pulled Glover out of the vehicle and forced him into the street before handcuffing him.

Two videos of Glover’s arrest, later posted online, showed an officer apparently punching Glover in the head and upper torso while Glover’s open-palmed hands were held behind his face.

Black Lives Matter Restoration Polk Inc. called for the arrest of four officers involved in the case and asked the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation, The Ledger reported at the time.

LPD Chief Sam Taylor placed four officers on paid administrative leave in January 2023 and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct its own investigation into Glover’s arrest, in parallel with its own internal investigation.

Last July, State’s Attorney Brian Haas provided Taylor with a summary of the FDLE report. The agency determined that no charges were filed against any of the four officers.

“The partial arrest video described herein, which was distributed to defendant, is a misleading portrayal of the entire incident,” Haas wrote. “The complete FDLE report provides critical context and information that leads to my conclusion that no charges are appropriate against any Lakeland police officer involved in this arrest.”

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Haas wrote that Glover’s actions justified the officers’ use of force. He wrote that Glover refused officers’ orders, fought with them and violently prevented them from removing a bag tied to his body that they had reason to believe might contain a weapon.