Will a former Wilmington officer go to prison for excessive force arrest?

A former Wilmington police officer was convicted Friday of assault, official misconduct and tampering with evidence, following a violent arrest that sparked protests in 2021.

Although prosecutors argued that his excessive force and subsequent lies in official documents merited a six-month prison sentence, the presiding judge said he believed a sentence of probation would serve justice in the case.

Samuel Waters’ defense argued that he had already suffered consequences, including the loss of his job as a police officer, as well as an ongoing federal trial, by successfully arguing for a probationary sentence.

Last year, a jury found Waters guilty of misdemeanor assault and official misconduct for repeatedly slamming a man’s head against the wall of a Southbridge store, as well as tampering with evidence for lied about the circumstances of her encounter with the man in her subsequent police report. .

Video of the violent arrest circulated on social media in 2021, sparking protests and Waters’ eventual firing from the Wilmington Police Department.

The jury acquitted him of the crime of perjury related to his statements following the interaction. He was also acquitted of another count of assault for a separate, violent arrest that occurred days before the encounter that led to his guilty verdict.

In depth: The evidence and new video behind rare excessive force conviction against Delaware police

The Arrest of Samuel Waters

The encounter that led to Waters’ guilty verdict stemmed from his response to a harassment complaint filed at a nearby business. The suspect in this case, Dwayne Brown, had just made a purchase at a Southbridge convenience store when Waters approached him.

Waters’ body camera was not activated during the interaction, but the arrest was captured on security camera footage without sound.

After a brief interaction, Waters turned Brown around and placed one of Brown’s hands on a plexiglass wall. Waters then briefly grabbed Brown’s other arm before placing his own hand on Brown’s head and driving it into the plexiglass wall.

After the head bounced, Waters escorted Brown outside and placed him under arrest for harassment and resisting arrest, charges which were ultimately dropped. Outside, his body camera was activated. As Waters placed Brown against an outside wall, Waters told Brown, “Maybe next time” he’ll “listen, instead of being a (expletive).”

Brown responded angrily: “You smashed my face into the glass for nothing.”

Wilmington Police Body Camera Footage Shows Aftermath of Viral Arrest

Body camera footage from former Wilmington police officer Samuel Waters shows what happened after Dwayne Brown was arrested at a Wilmington store.

Courtesy of New Castle County Superior Courts, Delaware News Journal

“This is not a proper (exhaustive) procedure, man,” Brown told Waters in the footage. “I wasn’t doing anything but asking you questions. You were wrong.”

Testifying before the jury in Waters’ trial, Joseph Leary, a Wilmington police officer who trains others in the use of force, agreed with Brown’s assessment.

He told the jury that department training and policy generally does not allow bouncing a suspect’s head against a wall. Forces to the face, neck and back are considered “red zones” due to the potential risk of serious and permanent injury.

“There was nothing happening that required that level of force,” Leary told the jury.

Waters’ lying-related guilty verdict was based on comparisons between his subsequent police report and his oral statements later captured on body camera footage.

In body camera footage after Brown’s arrest, he told someone he had no idea who Brown was. But he wrote police reports and other documents following his arrest that were examined at trial. In this account of Brown’s arrest, he claimed that the harassment victim showed him a photo and that he immediately recognized Brown, which prosecutors said was a lie.

Waters also included information about Brown’s criminal history that prosecutors said was intended to provide after-the-fact justification for his violent tactics during the arrest.

In court Friday, Assistant Attorney General Dan McBride, who heads the Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust, also noted a conversation Waters had with his supervisor directly after the incident.

McBride said Waters told his supervisor that Brown had harassed the “only white woman” working at the company and that he was simply going to file a miscellaneous complaint until Brown resisted arrest. McBride said that was also a “lie.”

He argued that Waters’ use of force occurred within seconds of their encounter and described it as “almost an ambush.”

Disputes over prison sentence

Criminal defendants are sentenced by judges based largely on the sentencing range prescribed by law governing their conviction, as well as standardized recommendations based on their personal history, criminal conduct, and elements such as their acceptance of of responsibility for their wrongdoing.

The recommended sentence in Waters’ case called for a sentence consisting only of probation. However, in court Friday, prosecutors said Waters’ use of force, the resulting betrayal of trust and his failure to appreciate the seriousness of his conduct warranted some prison time.

In court Friday, McBride said Waters’ reports contained more “fiction than fact” but used “boilerplate” police language that “struck me deeply.”

He said Waters lied in his reports, seeking to create a “fictitious character” and a “Wilmington criminal stereotype” to justify his use of force. He told the judge that he had been a prosecutor for more than a decade and routinely relied on written statements from police officers to make arguments against criminal defendants.

“It made me question everything I read in each case,” McBride told the judge.

Waters’ case was a rare public release of the official reports that all Delaware police create as part of their jobs.

Exemptions under the state’s public records law give local police departments wide latitude to hide such records outside of the subpoena power available to prosecutors and even in cases where wide distribution of videos depicting police violence creates a reason to question the actions of officers.

In a written submission to the court, McBride’s office also noted that before Waters became a Wilmington officer, he was fired from a Maryland police department for running a stop sign and then running over someone one while in uniform. They argued that this was irrelevant to his beliefs, but showed his “disregard for the professional standards that police should uphold”.

McBride said the case erodes already strained relations between police and the public and therefore deserves severe punishment.

On behalf of Waters, John Malik, his lawyer, argued that his client had already suffered consequences. He lost his job and his ability to be a police officer and therefore does not pose a continuing threat to public safety or a repeat offense.

He said his client worked at a national grocery distribution warehouse and nearly lost his job when he was convicted last year. He said he would have difficulty finding another job if he was sentenced to prison.

Malik also cited two recent cases of police brutality in Delaware that resulted in only probation sentences: one involving a New Castle County police officer who dragged a young woman by the hair while he was in a temporary cell and a Dewey Beach police officer who punched a man while he was in custody. medical stretcher.

Malik also said it was easy for the public to “watch Monday morning” such actions by police. He looked to the facts of the case to argue that Waters’ choice to use force was not incorrect, even if the type of force he used was wrong.

He noted that Waters had rescued animals and helped his wife’s former student, arguing that his actions were an aberration and out of character. He also disputed that Waters had not shown remorse or appreciation for his offending, saying his client had not made such statements because he intended to appeal his conviction .

Waters also declined to address the court Friday, citing his intention to appeal the case.

Ultimately, Presiding Judge Francis Jones said he weighed the factors described by Malik against the seriousness of Waters’ betrayal of the public trust and concluded he did not deserve a prison sentence . He said he did not believe Waters posed an ongoing threat to public safety.

“This was an isolated case,” Jones said before handing down the probation sentence.

Meanwhile, Brown filed a lawsuit against Waters and the city, claiming the police department engaged in a practice of violating citizens’ constitutional rights. In September, a judge ruled that his lawyers had not presented enough allegations to support such a claim and gave them the chance to amend their complaint.

This amendment is awaiting submission by Brown’s attorneys.

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or [email protected].