(NECN: Alysha Palumbo - Seabrook, NH) - Three Seabrook, New Hampshire police officers are on paid administrative leave after a video was posted to YouTube Monday allegedly showing police brutality.
Town Manager Bill Manzi confirms the surveillance video is from the police department jail cell after the November 2009 DWI arrest of then 19-year-old Seabrook resident Michael Bergeron, Jr.
Manzi said, "The chief of police and I agreed that what was on the video warranted a full and thorough investigation."
Manzi says that investigation will be both internal and in conjunction with outside agencies.
He says he questions why the video was posted more than four years after the arrest.
Manzi said, "I don't know why it's been released now, it does seem a bit odd."
The clip was posted by a user named Mike Berg, who claims in the video description that the incident happened after he grabbed his wallet while in custody.
He wrote that one officer, "choked me against the wall then tried to grab the wallet from my pocket. once he got the wallet and my phone this is what happened."
He went on to say, "I have a permanent lump on the back of my head chipped teeth and brain injuries but talking to a lawyer soon well see what happens."
Manzi says they're taking the allegations seriously.
He said, "We all have concerns with how people in custody are being treated and that's without question."
Police reports from Bergeron's arrest show officers reported he was "kicking the backplate of {my} a cruiser," "threatening" officers, "spitting" and "yelling profanities," and kept touching an officer's arm after repeatedly being told not to.
One officer said another officer "appeared to perform an arm bar on Bergeron" and after "further failure to comply with anyone's order," he was pepper sprayed.
Manzi said, "We intend to be thorough and fair, but we do take it seriously."
