"It was a black man's nightmare," said Zachary Robert Brown, following his acquittal Tuesday by an all-white jury. He had been on trial for domestic battery.
The trial lasted all day. "It was the scariest day of my life," he said. "The jury could have gone either way." But it only took tem 5-10 minutes before returning a not-guilty verdict.
Brown, who at one point had been facing two felony counts during an alleged altercation he had with his white, European, former girlfriend over the cutting of his child's hair. The experience left the sometimes bartender convinced that the "white power structure" was somehow behind his lengthy incarceration.
"I saw the lengths that the state went through to cover the butts of the Key West police officers involved in my arrest and I would like to be compensated for my legal costs and the stress I went through," he said. "I still spent 110 days in jail for doing nothing wrong and I had to (or was advised to) cut my dreadlocks."
On the other hand, Brown was appreciative of his public defender, Maritza Edwards. "She was very fantastic and the assistant state attorney was a very tough lady."
Originally, Brown had been looking at two years to life before the state dropped the two felony counts of burglary and tampering with a witness. Instead, Brown was finally charged with misdemeanor domestic battery.
His day in court came before Judge Wayne Miller, ironically, the same judge who years ago had "sentenced" Brown to the Key West library to listen to classical music two hours a day. In that case, Brown and his "boom box" had been cited for violating the city's noise ordinance.
In the wake of his latest successful court battle, Brown is undecided yet whether he will pursue some recourse against the police department.