Free Thought Project by Matt Agorist St. Paul, MN When 24-year-old Terrell Wilson was arrested on April 13, 2016, he never thought an accusation of swiping someones cellphone at a night club would end up with him being held down by a half dozen officersand savagely torturedwhile in handcuffs. But that is exactly what happened. Now, after nearly three years, the disturbing video has been released and weve learned the fate of the cop who doled out most of the punishment.
Travis Vandewielethe cop who doled out multiple knee strikes, punches and torture techniques on the restrained and nonviolent Wilsonhas been on paid administrative leave, otherwise known as paid vacation, from the Ramsey County Sheriffs Office for the last two years. During this time hes been collecting $121,555 in salary. As part of a recent settlement against the office, Vandewiele will also receive all the back pay for his vacation and sick paydespite being on vacation and never having to take a sick day.
According to police, Wilson was arrested for allegedly taking two cellphones from patrons at a night club. He was then arrested and brought to the jail where all hell broke loose.
The video starts with Wilson in the back of the squad car. He was pepper sprayed during the arrest which is causing him severe discomfort and making it hard to breathe. When police attempted to remove him from the squad car, they put a spit mask over him, in spite of the fact that he was not spitting at them.
Wilson appears to be in distress and is limp as the deputies try to get him out of the car. This is when the arrest took a sadistic turn for the worse.
Officer Vandewiele tells the clearly suffering Wilson, If you dont get up Im going to drag you.
For no reason at all, police then transport the entirely passive Wilson to a restraint chair where they demand he lean back onto his handcuffed wristsan impossibly painful task.
Ive never been through so much pain, Wilson told the FOX 9 Investigators in an exclusive interview.
It was torture. Thats what it felt like, torture.
They wanted me to sit on my [handcuffed] hands. They wanted me to do things that were impossible, said Wilson.
FOX 9 interviewed multiple former police officers and professionals who are experts on use of force and they unanimously agreed that what happened to Wilson was extreme and wrong.
If you ever had the experience of being handcuffed behind your back, its extremely hard to sit up, said Tim Williams, a former Senior Detective Supervisor with the Los Angeles Police Department, according to FOX 9.
You have three or four people doing three or four different things, wanted him to do something he cant do and therefore you are not getting the task done, said Williams.
Because Wilson was being shoved in different directions by the deputies, he couldnt comply with anything they were telling him. In spite of Wilsons lack of physical resistance, because it was impossible to comply, deputies continued to use pain compliance, causing more suffering.
You will see one deputy who is pushing the subject in one direction and another pushing the subject in another direction, said Seth Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and a former officer with the Tallahassee Police Department.
It can give the deputies a perception of resistance, when there is not any actual resistance, said Stoughton.
Eventually, the pain compliance moves to something far more sinister as Vandewiele begins torturing Wilson by pressing on nerve endings behind Wilsons jaw known as the mandibular angle. This tactic causes extreme pain. As Wilson responds by wriggling in the seat, Vandewiele brings more pain.
You aint seen excessive force yet, Vandewiele can be heard saying, before delivering the four closed-fist strikes to Wilsons abdomen.
I thought it was one of the more distressing videos Ive seen, said Christine Cole, Executive Director of the Crime and Justice Institute, a law enforcement think tank in Boston that studies excessive force cases. This was really bad, I thought.
This wasnt pain compliance to get someone under control, said Cole. This was just violence, power and exercising being pissed off.
When presented with the video evidence by FOX 9, the current sheriff Bob Fletcher said what he witnessed was extremely disturbing and demonstrated failed supervision and poor training. Fletcher added that the supervisor present and employees who witnessed it had a duty to intervene to stop the assaultive tactics and the use of excessive force, according to the news outlet.
Yet still, he let Vandewiele off with less than a wrist slap. Moreover, none of the officers who helped and watched were disciplined.
Highlighting the utter disparity between punishing police officers and regular citizens is the amount of discipline received by Wilson when compared to his torturer, Vanderwiele.
For nearly killing an incapacitated man in handcuffs and senselessly and sadistically torturing him, Vanderwiele paid a $150 fine and received two years of paid vacation with full benefits.
Wilson, on the other hand, who was accused of taking two cell phones from a night cluba crime he says he did not commitwas charged with two felonies. After he spent three weeks in a cage, Wilson says he took a plea deal to avoid going to prison for the double felony charges and was put on five years of probation. And we call this justice in the land of the free.
Below is the video, warning, it is extremely disturbing.
Free Thought Project
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More details and commentary by three nationally recognized use of force experts whose experience includes law enforcement, scholarly research, and providing expert testimony at trials from FOX 9 News