Houston area police officer acquitted in 2008 shooting of aspiring major league ballplayer

Jury acquits cop in shooting of Texas ballplayer

HOUSTON — A Houston-area police officer was acquitted Tuesday of shooting an aspiring major league baseball player who he mistakenly believed was armed and in a stolen vehicle.

Jurors deliberated for nearly four hours before finding Bellaire police Sgt. Jeffrey Cotton not guilty of aggravated assault by a public servant for the 2008 shooting that injured Robert Tolan, the son of former major leaguer Bobby Tolan.

After the verdict, Cotton smiled and shook hands with other Bellaire police officers but Tolan and his family left the courtroom.

If Cotton had been convicted, he could have faced a sentence of life in prison.

Cotton, 40, had told jurors that the shooting was justified because he thought Tolan, 24, was armed and believed his life was in danger. But prosecutors said Cotton was reckless.

Cotton, a 10-year police veteran, shot Tolan in the chest at his family’s home in the Houston enclave of Bellaire early New Year’s Eve 2008, after officers tried to arrest him and his cousin. Officers thought they were driving a stolen car after typing in the wrong license plate when checking Tolan’s sport utility vehicle.

The injury ended Tolan’s baseball career.

The shooting prompted claims of racial profiling against Bellaire police, which officers have denied. Tolan is black, and Cotton is white.

Earlier Tuesday, Cotton told jurors that he shot Tolan after seeing him reach into his waistband, believing he was trying to get a weapon, as he jumped off the ground from laying face down while being arrested. Defense attorney Paul Aman said Cotton was following police training.

But prosecutor Clint Greenwood told jurors that Cotton and other officers weren’t in any danger. Tolan and his cousin didn’t have weapons, only paper bags filled with burgers and fries, Greenwood said.

When Tolan’s parents came out of their home to protest what was going on, Cotton manhandled Tolan’s mother and slammed her into a garage door, the prosecutor said.

Tolan testified that he was on one knee protesting Cotton pushing his mother when he was shot.

Cotton fired three shots, including one that hit Tolan. Surgeons were not able to remove the bullet, which lodged in his liver.

Tolan’s father played for five teams during a 13-year major league career.

After the shooting, Tolan and his family filed a federal lawsuit against Cotton and Bellaire officials, accusing the community and police of having a history of racial profiling, false arrests and racial harassment.

Cotton has been on administrative leave since the shooting.