HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A Pennsylvania State Police Trooper is headed to trial. The prosecution said he kicked a skateboarder in the head in Harrisburg last year.
Trooper Ryan Luckenbaugh is charged with two counts of official oppression, simple assault and harassment.
Last May, Christopher Siennick was arrested along Locust Street in Harrisburg. He was arrested by Luckenbaugh and Trooper Michael Trotta on disorderly conduct charges.
But a video shown by the prosecutor doesn't match an affidavit he wrote.
In the affidavit, it said Siennick spat at the police car, threw and object at the car, resisted arrest and smelled of alcohol.
Prosecution argued in court that Luckenbaugh lied in his affidavit. Part of the encounter between the troopers and Siennick was captured on camera. The video shows Luckenbaugh lunging at Siennick and kicking him in the face.
Prosecutor Stephen Lawisky said, "We demand more of law enforcement officers, especially this day and age. With video and audio we just demand more. You can't lose your cool. You can't kick somebody in the face when they're handcuffed on the ground, and you can't lie about things."
The video doesn't show Siennick committing some of the crimes. The prosecution said the problem is Luckenbaugh used his power of authority to lie about what happened that night.
"What you have here is them lying on an affidavit of probable cause, and when you do that then everybody suffers. Every police office, every prosecutor suffers when you have a false allegation," Zawisky said.
But Luckenbaugh's defense attorney said there is an eight-minute gap in the video where Siennick could have committed the crimes.
Defense Attorney Ed Spreha said, "There's a lot more to this story. There's a lot more that occurred. And unfortunately you were only given a glimpse of what happened on that night."
And he said the video does show Siennick committing some of the crimes he is charged with.
Spreha said, "I think the allegation to the facts as well as the police report speak for themselves. And he's being charged with official oppression when the evidence shows that the charges that were filed against Mr. Siennick on that night were absolutely correct."
But the prosecutor said Siennick was put in jail on $250,000 bail unnecessarily.
"In my opinion it was trumped up charges. A lot of those charges were unnecessary," Zawisky said.
WARNING: This video contains adult language