Alexander Nicholas Fanjul (Palm Beach Police Department).
Body camera footage shows cops arresting the heir of a sugar fortune for domestic violence at his home. As cops in Palm Beach, Florida, have previously said, Alexander Nicholas Fanjul, 39, attacked his girlfriend after she told him to quit being irate that they were recently seated next to a gay couple at a restaurant.
“I’ve been f—ing framed, man,” he said on footage dated the night of Jan. 28.
Authorities largely redacted body cameras of the scene and muted portions, but an officer said he walked in on the attack.
“I went in because the door was cracked open and I heard them screaming, and he was standing over her,” the officer told a colleague.
“She had her purse on her,” he said. “He kicked her, threw her to the floor, ripped it off her shoulder. She doesn’t know where her purse is, her phone is.”
Court documents say that according to the woman, Fanjul choked her by the neck, and though she “did not fully lose consciousness,” she had a very difficult time breathing. An officer noted she had bruising and redness around her neck, consistent with her story.
“I further observed the house to be in disarray upon my arrival on scene,” police wrote. “There were drops and trails of blood leading from the doorway where [the woman] stated she was dragged, all the way towards the area in the residence where I observed Fanjul standing over [the woman] when I first arrived. Additionally, I observed chairs flipped upside down onto the floor, out of place carpets, and many other miscellaneous items seemingly knocked over or thrown onto the floor.”
Several officers can be seen on the body camera standing over the handcuffed Fanjul. Asked what he wanted, he answered, “I would like to go to bed.”
Fanjul, an heir of his family’s sugar empire, was initially charged with false imprisonment, petit theft, felony battery, tampering with a witness, victim, or informant. Ultimately, he pleaded guilty on Nov. 4 to petit theft, criminal mischief, and felony battery, with the court withholding adjudication of that final charge. He is serving four years of probation.
