Former cop enters not-guilty pleas

CINCINNATI — A University of Cincinnati police officer who fatally shot a motorist during a traffic stop pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of murder and was ordered jailed on $1 million bail.

Fired UC officer Ray Tensing later posted 10 percent of that amount and was released, the Hamilton County Court clerk’s website said. He was freed at about 6:30 p.m., county sheriff’s spokesman Mike Robison confirmed.

People in the courtroom audience had erupted into cheers and clapped when Tensing’s bail was set at $1 million, drawing the ire of Judge Megan Shanahan.

“Ladies and gentlemen! This is a courtroom,” the judge said sharply.

Tensing also pleaded not guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter in the July 19 shooting of Samuel DuBose, who was stopped for not having a front license plate.

Defense attorney Stewart Mathews said there are two sides to the case and the officer’s much-viewed body camera video of the traffic stop can be interpreted differently from the prosecutor’s version.

Tensing, 25, was fired soon after he was indicted. He had been with the University of Cincinnati for more than a year after starting police work in 2011 in a Cincinnati suburb. He has a UC degree in criminal justice.

Two campus police officers who responded to the shooting have been put on paid leave, university spokeswoman Michele Ralston confirmed Thursday. Phillip Kidd and David Lindenschmidt are on leave while the university police department conducts an internal investigation, she said.

Body camera footage from the two officers was released Thursday. Kidd can be heard saying he saw Tensing being dragged. And in other footage, Lindenschmidt can be heard telling another officer that Tensing “went down, got tangled in the car and drew his gun and fired.”