Bobby Adams paused before he answered the question about how his encounter with law enforcement has affected him.

“It traumatized me,” Adams testified on Tuesday in the Elijah E. Cummings Courthouse in Baltimore. “Made me scared for my life.”

On April 27, 2020, Baltimore Police arrested Adams at about 9 a.m. on Mayfield Avenue near Cardenas Avenue in Belair-Edison when he tried to run after he got out of a stolen car. He was 17 at the time. That’s when Officer Maxwell Dundore, prosecutors allege, used a prohibited neck hold, shouted “I will choke you. I will kill you,” and later kicked him in the side of the head.

Dundore, 29, who’s a more than five-year veteran, elected for a bench trial this week in Baltimore Circuit Court on charges of second-degree assault and misconduct in office. Circuit Judge Gregory Sampson will determine whether he is guilty of those counts.

In his opening statement, Assistant State’s Attorney Ernest Reitz said the case was about excessive force and police misconduct.

Reitz said the state would present audio and video that he described as “quite frankly, shocking.” He mentioned the statement, “I will choke you. I will kill you.”

“Never should an officer say that to a citizen,” Reitz said. “That alone warrants a conviction for misconduct in office. Unfortunately, your honor, there is more.”

But Natalie Finegar, one of Dundore’s attorneys, said her client did not use a chokehold and stated that Adams was resisting arrest. She said there was a reasonable explanation for his actions.

When her client stated, “I will choke you. I will kill you,” Finegar said, he did not mean that as a threat. Dundore, she said, wanted Adams to stop struggling so he wouldn’t get hurt.

“He is saying that out of frustration,” Finegar said in her opening statement. “He’s concerned something’s going to happen to Bobby Adams.”

Finegar denied that her client kicked Adams in the head. Instead, she said, Dundore was standing in a tight space and lost his footing on the wet concrete.

In an email, Lindsey Eldridge, a police spokesperson, said Dundore’s police powers remain suspended.

His supervisor, Sgt. Brendan O’Leary, who’s a more than 11-year veteran, faces charges of making a false statement and misconduct in office on allegations that he minimized and distorted the nature of what happened in a use-of-force report and misled investigators. He’s set to stand trial on April 18, according to online court records.

In a statement released after the two officers were indicted, Mayor Brandon Scott said he was “disgusted by these allegations and remain committed to improving this culture and lack of humanity.”

Adams, now 20, appeared in the courtroom in handcuffs and a yellow jumpsuit. He’s incarcerated while he awaits trial on charges of robbery, first- and second-degree assault and theft, according to online court records.

He testified that he remembers officers slamming him and kicking him in the face.

At one point, Adams testified that law enforcement choked him. He said he could not breathe. But he later said his only complaint was “when they kicked me in my face.”

Adams acknowledged that he was resisting arrest “because I didn’t want to get locked up again.”

On cross-examination, Adams testified that he stopped resisting arrest after Dundore shouted, “I will choke you. I will kill you,” and stated that he was not hurt that morning.

Prosecutors played several body camera videos of the arrest.

During the scuffle, Dundore called Adams “stupid ass” and told him to “shut the hell up.” Dundore denied in the video that he kicked Adams in the face, later commenting that he’d slipped.

Detective Calvin Kreiter testified that he expressed concerns about Dundore’s language to his superiors, describing it as inappropriate.

Meanwhile, Officer Andrew Brown testified that he responded to the area for a call for an officer in need of assistance.

Brown said he did not see the beginning of the interaction. He testified that he relieved one of the officers who was involved in arrest.

Over and over again, Adams could be heard on video protesting that police kicked him in the face. Brown tried to console Adams and asked him to calm down.

“If that happened,” Brown said to Adams, “we’re going to handle it.”

dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com