A Black Texas man who aspired to become a police officer spent 16 months fighting felony accusations that he assaulted two officers during a “welfare check” at his home. A jury acquitted him after his son recorded video of the arrest.
The video caught Huntsville police and prosecutors by surprise, Stewart said, because they had expected to secure a conviction based on the officers’ accounts.
When Stewart’s attorney introduced the video at trial last month, jurors were able to assess the encounter for themselves. They acquitted Jafari Stewart, 39, of the felony charges, sparing him the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence.
Video Evidence Saves Black Man
Stewart still faces two misdemeanor charges stemming from the arrest: resisting arrest and failure to identify.
The cops accused Stewart of spitting in one of their faces and shoving the other officer, but none of that is captured on video.
“I don’t like to call people liars,” Stewart told ABC 13 Houston after his acquittal.
“But fabrication, yes. Cover up, yes.”
In an interview with Atlanta Black Star, Stewart’s attorney, Benjamin Jefferies, said the officers’ body cameras fell during the attempted arrest and did not capture the struggle.
But neither camera captured any audio indicating Stewart spat on an officer or shoved an officer. And neither has been released to the public.
“The audio is lacking any type of reactionary evidence to him spitting,” Jefferies said.
Stewart, who also spoke to Atlanta Black Star, believes his trial would have turned out much differently without the video evidence.
“Without that video, I would have been in jail or I’d have had to take a plea deal for a charge that I didn’t commit and would have ruined any hope that I had to ever be a cop or anything else,” he said.
Watch the video below.
Cops Forced Their Way In
The encounter took place on March 28, 2025, after two Huntsville police officers knocked on Stewart’s door to investigate a reported “welfare concern regarding children” – minutes after entering the apartment with his children.
Stewart said a downstairs neighbor called police to report a noise complaint, but he was not even home at the time and his three kids were at a neighbor’s apartment who was babysitting them.
Stewart told the cops that everything was fine, but they forced their way into his home after he refused to let them enter to arrest him.
The cops claimed in court they heard the voices of children inside the apartment, but the children did not sound like they were under duress.
But Jefferies said the cops needed more probable cause before barging into the home because there were no exigent circumstances.
“In order to breach someone’s home, they have to have probable cause that a crime was committed and exigent circumstances, which in this case would be emergency aid,” he said.
“That there was an individual in that apartment that needed immediate aid. I don’t believe they met that burden.”
“Both officers admitted that none of the sounds they heard the children making made them feel like they were in duress.”
The video Stewart’s son recorded begins as officers attempt to handcuff him. It does not show the alleged spitting or shove.
Huntsville police told local media that they would not release the body-camera footage while the misdemeanor charges remain pending.
“Our office cannot provide specific facts while additional charges for Resisting Arrest and Failure to Identify are still pending,” Walker County District Attorney Will Durham said in a statement to the media.
‘No Warrant, No Probable Cause and No Legal Justification’
Stewart worked as a prison corrections officer at the time of his arrest and had recently passed the civil-service exam to join the Dallas Police Academy.
He had just returned from a 16-hour shift and picked up his kids from a neighbor’s apartment, a woman who had been babysitting them while he was at work.
“They said they were responding to a domestic dispute,” Stewart said.
“I told them, ‘Hey, I’m a single father, it’s just me and my kids here, there’s no domestic dispute,’” he said.
He said they kept banging on the door, so he opened the door and they forced their way in.
“I told them, ‘I do not give you consent to come in my house’ but I guess the word consent triggered the officer because they pushed past me and started grabbing on me,” Stewart said.
“I informed my oldest son who was twelve at the time to go get his phone and start recording because I was fearful for my life and their lives.”
“They had me up against the wall and officer David Cross of Huntsville PD put his hand around my neck,” he said. “I felt like my life was in danger.”
“He then delivered two strikes to the left side of my head,” Stewart continued. “And then officer Gonzalez pulled out his taser and put it to my chest.”
“I said, ‘You’re going to tase me in front of my kids, I’m not doing nothing.’ I put my hands up and they arrested me.”
“I clearly never assaulted the officer. I’d never spit on the officer. I didn’t do anything. We just got in a house.”
“If my son didn’t record, I would have been in jail for something I totally didn’t do,” he said.
‘It Was Haunting’
He resigned from his corrections job last year rather than face termination. A felony conviction would have ended his path toward becoming a police officer.
“That was actually, like, my goal — to become a cop,” Stewart said.
It remains unclear whether Stewart still plans to pursue a law-enforcement career. Court records show that his trial on the pending misdemeanor charges is scheduled for next year.
The arrest, Stewart said, took a toll on his emotional health.
But the arrest has taken its toll on his emotional health.
“I still have trauma,” he said. “I still have nightmares, still have headaches like that.”
“It’s still hard for me to speak and like I try to get my head up with it as much as now the thing is going on.”
Stewart said he would still like to become a police officer but said he will apply to law school once he completes his master’s degree in sports management.
“I think I want to be a lawyer because I feel like I can help people,” he said.
“I never try to use racism, but I feel like as a Black person at this time, my word gave me nothing,” he said.
“They didn’t care. They were going to try to find something because me telling them, ‘hey, there’s nothing going on,’ not once, not twice but three times and they still pushed past me. I feel like it was just a race thing.”
