VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - The Valdosta Police Department (VPD) cleared an officer of excessive force and discriminatory conduct after a formal complaint launched an internal investigation.

The video from an incident recorded on a neighbor’s Ring camera on Tuesday, May 19, was posted on social media.

The video shows a VPD officer pulling up in a marked car behind a man in his driveway. The two have a brief conversation before the officer gets out of his vehicle and forcefully grabs the man by the arm to confront him.

On May 21, Mara Capistran, who is the neighbor who captured the video, filed a formal complaint with the Valdosta Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards. That launched an internal investigation, which was completed on June 6.

Capistran says that at the time of the video, she and her children were in the car.

“They are so young that they did not understand why he was grabbed in that manner. But to me it was way too aggressive, especially with someone not even understanding what they’re saying,” she said.

WALB got the investigation documents in July, which break down the three actions alleged by the officer and the General Order violations to review and find merit.

Complaint #1: “Officer did, during the course of his official duties, use excessive force, a violation of General Order 200-10, Response to Resistance, Section III, B, which states in part, Police Personnel shall use only that degree of force, which is reasonable and necessary to perform lawful objectives, when officer grabbed the male by the arm and pulled him to the car.”

This complaint was unfounded.

Complaint #2: “Officer did, during the course of his official duties, act in a discourteous manner, a violation of General Order 100-50, Code of Conduct, Section XXX, which states in part, Employees shall be courteous to the public. Employees should be tactful in the performance of their duties, control their tempers, exercise patience and discretion, and should not engage in argumentative discussion, when he yelled at the complainant and other members of the complaint’s community during various interactions.”

This complaint was stated to have insufficient evidence.

Complaint #3: “Officer did, during the course of his official duties, exercise bias based on a subject’s race, a violation of General Order 400-56, Racial and Bias Based Profiling, Section III C, which states in part, All officers of the Valdosta Police Department shall exercise their law enforcement powers in a manner that does not unlawfully discriminate against individuals based solely on common traits they possess by belonging to a certain group, when he discriminated against a Hispanic male during a traffic stop.”

The complaint was unfounded.

According to the investigation, the man in the video stated “that he did not stop at the stop sign, and he described traveling slowly through the stop sign.”

As he describes the beginning of the interaction to the internal investigator and translator, he stated, “he got scared, and the officer asked him something he did not understand...he was going to pull his cellphone out to call someone, but the officer would not let him.”

Capistran said, “I mean, him running the stop sign was wrong, but the way that he didn’t have his lights on or it wasn’t visible to me that his lights were on. A traffic stop would’ve been taken in a different manner than just hollering at him from the vehicle.”

VPD told WALB they would not be able to release the body and dash camera footage at this time. But the investigation did highlight that the physical interaction between the officer and the man was consistent with what was seen in the surveillance video.

“A lot of this stuff gets swept under the rug, especially when people are scared or don’t know to speak up for themselves. I feel like standing up for people that can’t defend themselves is important,” Capistran said.

The investigation highlighted a prior incident where the officer named in this complaint approached another neighbor in the driveway for running the same stop sign but according to VPD, there were no specifics provided on those actions.

Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? Let us know. Please include the article’s headline in your message.

To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook and X (Twitter). For more South Georgia news, download the WALB News app from the Apple Store or Google Play.

Copyright 2025 WALB. All rights reserved.