Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe is facing criminal charges for at least the second time since he took the badge, this time for his alleged involvement in a fight outside a Midtown bar last month.
Rolfe, who also faced charges in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks in 2020, is now being charged with one count of simple battery, according to booking records. The charge stems from a June 29 fight at X Midtown.
APD said the decision to charge Rolfe was made after “a thorough and methodical investigation, including interviews with all parties involved and a comprehensive review of all available evidence.”
The case will be turned over to the Fulton County Solicitor General’s Office for review.
Rolfe was placed on administrative leave shortly after the incident. He was booked into the Fulton County Jail on Wednesday night and released shortly after on a $2,000 bond.
APD originally said Rolfe would be charged with simple assault but booking records show he was charged with simple battery.
Rolfe was off-duty at the time of the alleged confrontation with a bar employee.
According to an arrest warrant, two APD officers responded to a report of a fight outside the bar just before 1:30 a.m. June 29 and spotted Rolfe there.
Rolfe, who had a bloody nose, told officers an employee grabbed his friend and started pushing and pulling him outside the business. He also said the employee began punching him, and he defended himself.
However, the employee and witnesses said Rolfe and a friend were the aggressors and the employee was simply trying to protect himself.
The employee was arrested for battery and simple battery and taken to Fulton County Jail. He was released July 1.
In a 911 call, the employee can be heard saying Rolfe was drunk and following him around as he took out the trash.
The owner of X Midtown said Rolfe and his friend have frequented the business before.
In the earlier incident, Rolfe and fellow APD Officer Devin Brosnan were charged in relation to the shooting of Brooks, who had fallen asleep in his car at a Wendy’s drive-thru in southwest Atlanta and struggled with officers as they tried to arrest him for driving under the influence.
The charges were dropped in August 2022, more than two years after the incident, by a special prosecutor assigned to handle the case.
Rolfe was fired after the Brooks shooting, but was reinstated after he appealed his firing.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis in 2020 found Rolfe had been reprimanded by the department for his use of force in a 2017 incident, although the department did not make the details of the encounter public.
The analysis found that Rolfe had 12 other incidents at the time, varying from vehicle accidents to citizens’ complaints. He was exonerated in nine of those internal investigations.
Two of the other incidents, which were both vehicle accidents, led to a written reprimand and an oral admonishment. An incident involving the discharge of a firearm in 2015 did not have a conclusion listed in his documents.
Rolfe was accused of shooting a man in the back in 2015. Police said the man was fleeing the scene after driving a stolen truck into a parked police car.
A lawsuit was filed against Rolfe in 2021 alleging he broke a man’s collarbone during a DUI stop. The lawsuit accused Rolfe of using excessive force when he allegedly grabbed Charles Johnson Jr. and threw him to the ground during a May 22, 2020, arrest, “thoroughly breaking his collarbone among other minor injuries.”
The lawsuit was dismissed in March 2022.
This was the second time an APD employee was involved in a dispute outside a bar in June. Last week, four APD recruits were dismissed after a dispute outside an East Point sports bar une 14.
One of the recruits, Wendy Celestin, was charged with three misdemeanors after officers said he fired five shots into the air.
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