An ex-Philly cop accused of beating a mother in front of her child during 2020 unrest found not guilty

A Philadelphia judge on Monday found a former city police officer not guilty on all charges in connection with the beating of a 28-year-old mother during civil unrest in October 2020 — an incident that attracted national attention when a group of officers pulled the woman from her car and separated her from her toddler for several hours.

Municipal Court Judge Francis W. McCloskey Jr. said at the conclusion of a one-day bench trial that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to show that then-Officer Darren Kardos struck Rickia Young during the chaotic incident. The episode was captured on video, which was played for the judge, but it also involved scores of other officers who were never charged, and Young did not testify — something the judge said was a significant hurdle in proving that Kardos hit her, or acted in a manner that amounted to a crime.

“There is no on-scene identifying witness,” McCloskey said in describing why he cleared Kardos of charges including simple assault and reckless endangerment.

Prosecutors had argued that Kardos “crossed the line” as he and the other officers sought to regain control of the area around 52nd and Chestnut Streets on Oct. 27, 2020. Protests had erupted there hours after other officers nearby fatally shot 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr., a Black man who relatives said was experiencing a mental health crisis and had lunged toward police while wielding a knife.

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Barnett acknowledged that those demonstrations had become dangerous, with some people looting stores or throwing bricks and trash at police. A sergeant was also injured after being run over by a car.

Still, Barnett said, “that doesn’t justify the defendant going crazy on [Young’s] car,” which officers encountered while it was stationary. Barnett said Kardos had turned Young “into a target” even though she did nothing to warrant being pulled from the vehicle — or beaten.

Kardos’ attorney, Coley O. Reynolds, however, said none of the videos prosecutors presented showed Kardos striking Young with his baton. And even if they had, he said, prosecutors did not prove that Kardos’ actions were criminal, given the dangerous conditions officers were facing on the street.

“It is clear that the actions of Officer Kardos were reasonable,” Reynolds said.

Kardos declined to comment afterward, but Reynolds said the verdict had “vindicated” him.

“We’re just really happy,” Reynolds said, adding that Kardos, who was fired over the incident, would now seek to get his job back.

The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment after the verdict.

Attempts to reach Young for comment Monday were not successful. One of her attorneys, Riley H. Ross III, called the verdict “disappointing.”

Kardos was the only officer to face charges over the beating of Young, who said she was driving to pick up her teenage nephew around 2 a.m. when she inadvertently got caught between police and people protesting in the area.

After officers pulled her from her car, they separated Young from her toddler, a decision that drew widespread criticism. Young said she was badly bruised in the incident and her 2-year-old was traumatized. Her 16-year-old nephew, who was also in the car, suffered injuries to his hand, she said.

The city later agreed to pay her $2 million after negotiating with her lawyers. Young also sued the National Fraternal Order of Police, which, days after the episode, posted a picture on social media of officers holding her 2-year-old boy with a caption that said in part: “This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia.” The posts were later deleted over what the union called “conflicting accounts of the circumstances.”

The incident happened hours after officers shot Wallace in West Philadelphia. As police responded to swelling unrest, a group of officers encountered Young’s SUV on Chestnut Street. Video showed them surrounding the car, bashing in the windows, pulling Young and a passenger out of the vehicle, appearing to striking them, and then removing a 2-year-old from the backseat.

Prosecutors said Kardos used his metal baton to bash in Young’s windows, and then pulled her out of the car by her hair, after which officers struck her with fists and batons.

Young said she had been driving to pick up her nephew at a friend’s house when she encountered a police barricade. After being pulled from her car and beaten, she said, she was detained in a police van, driven to Police Headquarters, then taken to the hospital and handcuffed to the bed. She was never charged.

Her toddler, meanwhile, was found by her mother hours later with police in a cruiser near the Department of Human Services offices in Center City.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said afterward that the officers involved had “terrorized” Young, and Mayor Jim Kenney called the officers’ actions “absolutely appalling.”

But several of Kardos’ former colleagues who testified at Monday’s trial said the situation they encountered on the street that night was extremely tense and dangerous, and several said they were worried that people might seek to drive cars through crowds of police. They said they approached Young’s SUV shortly after a pickup truck had sped through a crowd of police, only narrowly avoiding a collision with people on the street.

Despite the fact that several officers were called to testify against Kardos, many filled the courtroom as the verdict was read. Shortly after McCloskey issued his decision, some of them applauded and cheered, drawing a quick rebuke from the judge.