I have been a cop for 10 years and 4 years in the military and this post is beyond stupid.
1st off the County Attorney or DA chooses what charges to go forward with not the cop. Never has been that way and it will never be that way. In fact any felony charges first has to have a probable cause hearing where a judge says yes there is PC or no there is no PC. Judge found PC in this case. Second you then go before a grand jury and they say yes or no, but you knew that right.
Do yourself a favor and don't comment unless you know the story. Clearly you don't in this case. The ADA has been on record in the papers saying that they went to trial because the Cop refused to allow the felony to be pled down. Since the cop was off-duty, he is considered the victim. Not to mention that, as Deus pointed out, the ADAs tend to support what the officers want for the reason that they have to work with them on a regular basis.
Next, your experience doesn't mean anything because how each state prosecutes things is different.
The cop set up Dennard? The cop could of and should have arrested Dennard at the bar where he 1) assaulted someone and 2) committed the crime of disorderly conduct. To further on that point he told Dennard to go home twice and that sounds like a, "Set up" job to you! That's sounds like someone cutting someone a serious break to me!
Clearly you missed the part about the cop being OFF-DUTY. Second, getting into an argument is not disorderly conduct. If you arrested people for that, then you should be fired for wasting the taxpayer's money. Third, Kopsa's testimony mentioned nothing about Dennard assaulting someone prior to being told to leave.
Again, we only have the COP's word that he told Dennard to go home twice. As for what it sounds like to you, that and $5 will get you a Starbucks coffee. You'll have to forgive me but 99% of the time Cops stick up for other cops regardless of reality.
You make no sense with your theory. So the officer passed on arresting Dennard with a bar full of witnesses to only set him up where there were very few witnesses? If it is me, I am taking him at the bar and handing out about 50 statement forms.
Or the cop who was not on duty but acting as a bouncer didn't really have a case to arrest Dennard in a bar full of witnesses to begin with and decided to make an example of Dennard by setting him up.
It makes no difference what you would do. You weren't the off-duty cop.
I have been to plenty of bar fights and when you do what the officers did here you watch where the people involved go so they don't start up again. I had the same thing happen to me and told a guy to beat-it and he went about 70 feet up the sidewalk and kicked in a store window. I had to run the 70 feet up the sidewalk and put his on his ass and arrest him.
What is being over looked here is that 2 officers saw Dennard punch someone 70 feet away, because the other officer tackled Dennard to the ground after he had assaulted the 1st officer.
This is false. Only Kopsa claimed to have seen Dennard drop his shoulder into Samani (not punch per your statement). All McBride saw was Kopsa wave to him for help with Dennard and then Dennard punch Kopsa. McBride didn't see the events leading up to that.
Also, you have no idea what the lighting was like so you have no idea what Kopsa saw. In fact, considering that the person who Dennard supposedly assaulted can't definitively ID Dennard when he was standing right next to him, how could Kopsa, from 70 ft away, definitively say what happened?
What is clear is that your bias for your brothers in blue is showing through.