05:02 PM EST on Tuesday, March 22, 2005

The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE -- A customer of the Narragansett Indian smoke shop testified in federal court today that he watched as state police broke tribal member Adam Jennings' ankle.

Jennings was working at the tax-free smoke shop on tribal land in Charlestown when state police raided it on July 14, 2003. He and two others working that day are suing seven state troopers, claiming they used excessive force and violated their civil rights.

On the stand today, the customer, Daniel Piccoli, said Jennings was not struggling when officers held him on the shop's floor, and said Jennings warned troopers they were hurting him.

"He said something in regard to let go, you're going to break my ankle," Piccoli said. The officer, he said, "just twisted more."

But a lawyer for the defense played a videotape of Piccoli testifying before an independent Brown University panel set up to review the raid. In it, Piccoli said the incident occurred outside the store, in the parking lot.

Asked about the apparent discrepancy, Piccoli said the events were confusing, and that he'd seen another person tackled to the ground outside the store, but had watched Jennings scuffle with police inside.

Also testifying today were the three plaintiffs - Jennings, his mother, Paulla Dove Jennings and Keith Huertas - as well as Domingo Monroe, who was also working at the smoke shop.

All four said when the raid began, they thought the store might be being robbed because the first people they saw spring into action were undercover officers inside the store.

Monroe testified that officers pushed Huertas to the ground. Only afterward did they identify themselves, he said.

Paulla Dove Jennings said she the first thing she saw was someone who was not a store staff member coming behind the counter.

"The other people there started yelling, and I kept saying, 'Who are you people? Who are you people?"' she said.

She said she tried to close the door to the smoke shop because she didn't know what was going on, and was thrown up against a wall.

Her son, Adam Jennings, testified he was upset by what happened to his mother, and was yelling at the officers, but was complying with their orders. He said he was ordered out of the store, and was headed to the door when he was told he was being arrested. He argued, and was tackled to the floor.

"I didn't do anything to warrant being placed under arrest," he said.

Jennings said one of his hands became pinned beneath him once he was on the ground, and he told officers he was unable to give the hand to them so they could handcuff him. He said despite that, and despite his complaints that they were hurting his ankle, they twisted it until it broke.

A lawyer for the defendants questioned Jennings' credibility, noting he failed to disclose another arrest in court documents. Also, she asked why he did not call for tribal police stationed outside if he thought the store was being robbed.

Jennings said he was simply concerned with protecting his mother from the people who had pressed her against a wall.

A doctor who treated Jennings' ankle was scheduled to testify tomorrow.