Baltimore officer charged with assaulting restrained inmate

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BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore police officer is facing criminal charges stemming from 2014 when he was accused of choking a restrained inmate, according to a department spokesman.

Officer Konstantinos Passamichalis, 50, has been charged with second-degree assault and misconduct in office.

The incident occurred Sept. 19, 2014, when Passamichalis took a fugitive, who had been caught by the Warrant Apprehension Task Force, into custody and placed him in plastic restraints, according to police spokesman T.J. Smith. Passamichalis then is accused of grabbing the prisoner, who was not attempting to flee, by the neck and assaulting him.

The department's internal affairs unit investigated and presented its findings to the State's Attorney's Office, which filed charges against Passamichalis this week.

Passamichalis was named Police Officer of the Year by the Baltimore Retired Police Benevolent Association Inc. in 2008, and received a Silver Star Award in the same year. At that time, Passamichalis was a detective in the Violent Crime Impact Division, a plainclothes unit that was disbanded in 2012 amid allegations of excessive force and misconduct.

No attorney was listed for Passamichalis on Wednesday, and a message left for the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 was not immediately returned.

He has been on administrative duty since the incident.