GRPD officer pleads no contest to assault and battery charge

(Update, Grand Rapids, January 27, 2005, 6:57 p.m.) A nine-year veteran of the Grand Rapids Police Department has pleaded no contest to an assault and battery charge.

Matthew Lockhart was charged with assaulting Darious Joseph, when Lockhart and several other officers arrested the 19-year-old for a parole violation in June. The other officers said Lockhart jumped on Joseph's back after he had gotten into a prone position, and hit him with his police-issued radio in the back of the head. Once Joseph was in custody, the officers watched Lockhart kick Joseph in his mid-section.