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Missing police cameras when deputy throws man on road

A WUSA9 investiagtion identifies at least seven cameras that should have been there during a controversial arrest.
Stuart Fitzgerald faces more than 15 years in prison for a crime experts say video doesn't show.

ORANGE COUNTY, Va. (WUSA9) - The Virginia sheriff's department that charged Stuart Fitzgerald with assaulting an officer after their officer threw the man to the ground has acknowledged at least one additional camera exists, and wont' comment on others.

For updates on this story follow Investigative Reporter Russ Ptacek on Twitter @russptacek or like Russ Ptacek on Facebook.

The agency originally told WUSA9, a dash cam that recorded low quality video with no audio was the only device that recorded images at the scene that night.

Click here to see full investigation

Fitzgerald was pulled over in the middle of the night for flashing his high beams. The deputy tackled him shortly after Fitzgerald refused to sign documents when he was cited for driving without a license.

Click here to see raw video of the confrontation

"We are not aware of any other video besides what you currently have in your possession," said Orange County Chief Deputy Mike LaCasse.

WUSA9's investigation determined at least seven cameras from three different agencies should have been at the scene while Fitzgerald was in custody, including a handheld device a deputy is recorded using by the existing dash cam video.

"This evening, I discovered that one of my patrol sergeants had taken photos of the defendant's face and of the hood of the car," LaCasse said responding to our finding.

The agency won't comment on cameras WUSA9 identified in use by the Town of Orange Police Department the night of the arrest.

Click here to see frame by frame screen grabs of the deputy throwing Fitzgerald to onto the highway

Of the seven cameras that should have been there, the one camera known to be one did not record any audio.

According blame that on a malfunction, but the same camera begins recording continuous overmodulated audio 25 minutes after the confronation with Fitzgerald.

"Without audio, you can't hear me screaming out, screaming for, asking, I'm screaming oh God please help me, please help me, you know," Fitzgerald said. "That's when I'm on the ground I'm screaming that, when I was on the car, when they had me on the hood of the car I was screaming God please help me God, that's what I kept saying."

The officer standing closest to the camera when Fitzgerald is thrown to the ground is from the Gordonsville Virginia Police department.

She's required by policy to wear a body camera, but that agency says she wasn't wearing one that night because her camera was malfunctioning.

Gordonsville has since replaced its cameras.

That backup vehicle is from the Town of Orange.

That agency acknowledges both it and another Orange Police Dept. squad car were there with dash cams.

The video also shows an Orange County officer wearing a body camera.

Officials won't tell us whether it was recording, but Orange County Sheriff's officials have repeatedly said.

"I know body cameras were present that night with our officers, the question becomes did they have them on," said Town of Orange Police Chief James Fenwick. "One of the in car camera videos has been located."

Authorities say existing video can't explain why Fitzgerald was thrown onto the highway or why Orange County is prosecuting him for assaulting police.

Fitzgerald faces more than 15 years in prison and has a court hearing in Orange County Friday.

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