[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/blog\/closing-arguments-expected-today-in-assault-case-against-rising-sun-pd-officer\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/blog\/closing-arguments-expected-today-in-assault-case-against-rising-sun-pd-officer\/","headline":"Closing Arguments Expected Today in Assault Case Against Rising Sun PD Officer","name":"Closing Arguments Expected Today in Assault Case Against Rising Sun PD Officer","description":"Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments this afternoon in a jury trial for a Rising Sun Police Department officer accused of slamming a 17-year-old girl\u2019s head against the hood of a patrol car in November after taking her into custody at a town shopping center. The defendant, Daniel Stickney, 37, also allegedly applied upward […]","datePublished":"2016-06-13","dateModified":"2026-03-16","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/blog\/author\/greenberglawoffices\/#Person","name":"Greenberg Law Offices","url":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/blog\/author\/greenberglawoffices\/","identifier":7,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0d600bf0d0a422eeda2a75c9d4b0240b93a50067ae011d1484f7dfed7467653?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e0d600bf0d0a422eeda2a75c9d4b0240b93a50067ae011d1484f7dfed7467653?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Greenberg Law Offices","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/greenberg-logo.png","url":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/greenberg-logo.png","width":301,"height":94}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Founder-Henry-I.-Greenberg-with-attorney-Larry.jpg","url":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Founder-Henry-I.-Greenberg-with-attorney-Larry.jpg","width":790,"height":787},"url":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/blog\/closing-arguments-expected-today-in-assault-case-against-rising-sun-pd-officer\/","about":["Articles"],"wordCount":1109,"articleBody":"Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments this afternoon in a jury trial for a Rising Sun Police Department officer accused of slamming a 17-year-old girl\u2019s head against the hood of a patrol car in November after taking her into custody at a town shopping center.The defendant, Daniel Stickney, 37, also allegedly applied upward pressure on the teen\u2019s arms while they were handcuffed behind her back \u2013 lifting her feet off the ground and causing her to beg for mercy.Stickney\u2019s lawyer, Lawrence S. Greenberg of Baltimore, rested the defense\u2019s case late Wednesday morning after calling three witnesses \u2013 RSPD Patrolman 1st Class Richard Hardy, who was Stickney\u2019s partner during the incident; RSPD Chief Chip Peterson; and Chad Quinter, a loss prevention officer employed by Martin\u2019s grocery store, where the alleged assault occurred.Stickney, who is charged with both second-degree assault and misconduct in office, declined to testify in his own defense. Greenberg rested the defense\u2019s case after advising Stickney of his right to testify and of his right to remain silent.Most of the defense testimony regarding the incident mirrored that given Tuesday by the alleged victim, Rising Sun resident Brianna Antao, now 18.Hardy, in uniform, and Stickney, clad in civilian clothes including sweatpants, responded to Martin\u2019s supermarket at 24 Rising Sun Town Center about 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2011 because Quinter caught Antao shoplifting shampoo and face cream.Antao admitted to those thefts \u2013 as well as to buying prescription painkillers from a dealer she had arranged to meet in the women\u2019s bathroom in that store; to being under the influence of pain meds while shoplifting and to ingesting her remaining pills (\u201cless than five\u201d) to avoid drug charges after the loss prevention officer collared her and before police arrived.What occurred when Stickney and Hardy met with Antao inside a grocery store office, as well as from that point forward, are marked by divergent accounts.Hardy testified that Antao became combative by yelling obscenities and thrashing about after Stickney took her cell phone because she appeared to texting. Hardy said he handcuffed Antao, who had been compliant and calm until the phone incident.Then Stickney led Antao, whose hands were cuffed behind her back, out the grocery store and to Hardy\u2019s patrol car parked outside Martin\u2019s, he testified.\u201cShe was hostile, very hostile,\u201d Hardy testified. \u201cShe was constantly swearing, cursing. She did not want to go. She used her body weight. She was jerking a lot. When you\u2019re in handcuffs, the more you move, the more pain you cause yourself.\u201dStore surveillance cameras videotaped Stickney escorting Antao out the supermarket and later restraining her at the patrol car by leaning her over the hood.Cecil County State\u2019s Attorney Ellis Rollins III showed the video to jurors as evidence on Tuesday. Greenberg showed it to jurors again on Wednesday, as he asked Hardy for his assessment of it.Hardy blamed all of the herky-jerky motion, the upward thrusts of the handcuffed teen\u2019s arms behind her back and Antao\u2019s head abruptly moving toward the hood \u2013 he disputed that it ever touched \u2013 on Antao.\u201cShe was all over the place, wiggling around,\u201d Hardy said, before referencing Stickney in the video and commenting, \u201cHe is motionless.\u201dHardy acknowledged that, despite the teen\u2019s purported bucking and squirming, Stickney was able to restrain her against the patrol car at one point with one hand while using the other to talk on his cell phone.Antao testified that Stickney was talking to a man named Bob about a washing machine.After that call, according to Antao, Stickney profanely chided her for making noise during his conversation and then slammed her head against the hood of the patrol car, lifting her feet off the pavement.He also lifted her arms higher behind her back, causing more pain to her shoulders as she continued to cry and beg for mercy, Antao testified.In her testimony, Antao told jurors she was using her cell phone inside that store office only to look up her mother\u2019s phone number, after Hardy had asked for it.At that point, according to the accounts given by Hardy and Antao, the plan was for the police officers to release the teen to the custody of her mother in the shoplifting case.Antao acknowledged that she acted belligerently \u2013 but only because Stickney grabbed her cell phone while she was attempting to oblige Hardy\u2019s request and then \u201cslammed\u201d her against the wall.On the witness stand, Hardy did not recall asking Antao for her mother\u2019s phone number, until Rollins provided him with a copy of the police report Hardy had written shortly after the incident.Quinter also testified that Antao was texting on her cell phone in the store office and that Stickney grabbed it for that reason.In addition, Quinter testified that Antao then lashed out. She \u201cyelled obscenities\u201d inside the store, disturbing nearby shoppers, and struggled as Stickney led her to the patrol car.Moments later, the sight and sounds at that patrol car caught the attention of Cecil County resident Chasidy Garvey, as she and her husband walked from their vehicle in the parking lot to the supermarket to shop.\u201cWhat attracted my attention was her feet were a foot off the ground and her face was pressed against the hood of the car,\u201d Garvey testified Tuesday. \u201cShe was crying, saying, \u2018Aww, you\u2019re hurting me.\u2019 Her feet were off the ground approximately a foot, swinging from side to side.\u201dGarvey told jurors she assumed that the man forcefully restraining the teen was an undercover police officer because, although he had her pressed her against a marked patrol car, he was clad in \u201cstreet clothes,\u201d including sweatpants.Noting that she isn\u2019t one to gawk, Garvey testified that she continued her walk into the store, although the incident disturbed her.Several days later, Garvey, who is employed as a Cecil County Circuit Courthouse clerk, told coworkers what she had witnessed, she testified.And someone \u2013 it wasn\u2019t Garvey \u2013 relayed her story to someone in the Cecil County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office, which is headquartered on the third-floor of that building.That office launched an investigation that led to the store\u2019s surveillance videotape, which, in turn, led to the criminal charges against Stickney.Stickney was issued a criminal summons on March 21 and, amid the criminal case against him, he has remained on the police force. Stickney holds the Patrolman 1st Class rank.For more information on closing arguments and the verdict, stay tuned to\u00a0cecildaily.com\u00a0or read Friday\u2019s edition of the Cecil Whig."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/blog\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Closing Arguments Expected Today in Assault Case Against Rising Sun PD Officer","item":"https:\/\/greenberglawyers.com\/blog\/closing-arguments-expected-today-in-assault-case-against-rising-sun-pd-officer\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]