On October 1, a Marion County jury saw through outrageous police lies and acquitted Jada Trainor of trumped-up felony charges of attempting to disarm a police officer and battery against a cop in a rare and important victory over the racist police and their prosecutor accomplices.
During jury selection, multiple jurors expressed a desire for video footage, or at least eyewitness testimony that wasn’t contradicted by other witnesses. They didn’t get that from Ryan Mears’s team. Prosecutors called two nurses and three cops to the stand, whose testimony was the only evidence offered by the State in their effort to convict Jada.
Prosecutors began the trial by saying: “‘She’s reaching for my gun,’ Anthony Sisco yelled.” All three officers testified that former Special Deputy Anthony Sisco, who is now an ICE agent after he was fired by Eskenazi for violating their video policy, loudly said multiple times that Jada was reaching for his firearm while two other officers had her pinned to the ground. But the nurses, who testified to hearing Jada’s complaints about not being seen and officers ordering her to leave, never mentioned Sisco yelling about his gun despite testifying they were nearby.
Witness testimony was also contradictory around the police allegation that Jada punched Sisco—none of the witnesses could testify that they actually saw Jada hit Sisco at all, and Sisco himself admitted to putting his hands on Jada before he claimed she hit him with a “hammer fist.” The jury didn’t buy it, and after deliberating for less than 90 minutes, they came back with a verdict acquitting her of those charges.
The jury did find her guilty of resisting law enforcement, a class A misdemeanor. Dropping the felonies and keeping that charge was the plea deal the prosecutors offered Jada weeks ago, knowing that they didn’t have the evidence to support and win convictions on the most serious charges. But now, because she refused to plead guilty and instead beat the prosecutors in trial on the felonies, Jada is looking to appeal that one charge.
But her acquittal raises the question: what lawful police action was she resisting? All three officers testified on the stand that Jada was only under arrest after she allegedly hit Sisco, but the jury acquitted her of that charge.
The Indianapolis branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation has stood with Jada since she first bravely shared her story of police brutality, which she later recounted on the witness stand. On July 13, Jada Trainor, a Black woman, U.S. veteran, and mother of five, including an infant, went to the Eskenazi Hospital emergency room for a blood pressure check. For simply asking the nurse clarifying questions and asking for a patient advocate, the staff called hospital police. Eskenazi Health Safety and Security officers then tackled Jada, handcuffed her to a hospital bed, and had her jailed on charges of resisting arrest and attempting to take an officer’s firearm.
Jada’s only apparent “crime” was the courage to fight back against a system of state violence disproportionately directed at poor and oppressed Black people. The resources wasted on this nearly 11-hour trial provoke a sobering question: What else could that money have accomplished? It could have addressed real crimes, like prosecuting Mayor Hogsett for selling out the public to fast-track an unwanted Google data center from which he personally stood to gain. Instead, it was spent trying to imprison an innocent Black woman who dared to ask for a patient advocate.
A call to join the fight: Your voice is needed
Jada’s partial victory is not an endpoint; it is a rallying cry. Her courage in the courtroom, facing down a system designed to silence her, has exposed a crack in the wall of medical racism and police impunity. But one crack is not enough.
Her story is not unique—it is a stark reminder of the violence Black women and communities of color face when seeking basic medical care. If we allow her battle to end here, we leave the next person to fight alone.
Jada is undeterred. She is determined to appeal her conviction and continue her fight to ensure no one else endures what she suffered. But she cannot do it alone. Her victory proves that when we stand up and challenge injustice, juries can see the truth. Systems can be held accountable.
Jada Trainor stood up. She fought back. And she won a crucial battle. Now, it is our turn to join the war. Together, we can transform her hard-won victory into a future where everyone receives care with dignity, not violence.
Featured photo: Jada and her husband, Jonathan, outside a press conference organized by the Indianapolis Liberation Center. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center.