Watch: Video shows Sanger cop’s actions that led to assault, official oppression charges
Sanger police released Wednesday a dashcam video they say shows a now-former police sergeant using what the department officially described as “excessive force” on a man during a traffic stop, leading to the sergeant being fired and facing charges of official oppression and assault.
The video shows the officer, identified by police as Sgt. Thompson, begin to handcuff the driver of a car during a traffic stop before he takes the man to the ground and uses a Taser on him. A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to a request for the former officer’s first name.
Thompson and another officer were responding to a call the evening of Oct. 23, 2022, about a vehicle disturbance forwarded to Sanger police by the Denton County Sheriff’s Office. The vehicle was traveling toward Sanger, and when it entered the North Texas city’s limits, the officers conducted a traffic stop.
Police did not provide any additional context about in what sort of disturbance the vehicle had been involved.
In the video released by police, Thompson and the other officer are seen walking up to the vehicle after stopping it. In a news release, police said the driver complied with the officers’ orders when he was instructed to get out of the vehicle and walk around to the back.
In the video, Thompson can be seen placing the man in handcuffs, though Thompson’s position relative to the camera angle blocks the view of the actual action, when the man starts to turn. Still holding on to the driver’s wrists, Thompson yanked the man, twisting him back around and taking him down to the ground.
The other officer who was seen walking up to the vehicle in the video steps back for a moment before walking forward, appearing to call for help from someone off camera before a third officer rushed into view. Together, Thompson and the other officer pinned the man down. In the footage police released, it appears Thompson repeatedly punches the driver as they slide slowly down a slight embankment to the side of the road, with the door of the stopped car still open and the officer who approached the vehicle with Thompson standing off to the side.
Around that time, another person in the vehicle reached out and closed the driver’s door.
After punching the driver several times, Thompson can be seen pulling a Taser from an equipment pouch on his vest. A flicker of light from the electricity can be seen just before Thompson jabs the weapon into the driver.
The third officer kept the driver pinned face down on the ground for nearly two minutes, at one point searching him, while the other two officers talk to the person who is still in the vehicle.
After speaking with the other person in the vehicle, Thompson and the third officer again search the man, patting him down and reaching into his pockets. The man appears to be having trouble standing and slouches forward with Thompson and the third officer holding him up as the officer who walked up to the vehicle with the now-former sergeant speaks to the person in the vehicle and then walks away.
After searching the man, Thompson and the third officer walked him out of the view of the dash camera. Thompson and the second officer then re-approach the vehicle and talk to the person inside. For another nearly 25 minutes after the man was walked by officers out of the camera’s shot, the officers repeatedly walked up to the stopped vehicle and back before the other person inside was allowed to drive the car away.
Thompson submitted a use of force report to department administrators, who compared his report with the dashboard-camera video and body-camera footage. The body-camera video has not been released, with police in the news release citing the footage including “imagery of the victim or of a juvenile, and the department doesn’t have the ability to cover their likeness.”
An internal affairs investigation was launched on Nov. 7, 2022, and Thompson was fired from the police department on Dec. 9.
The internal affairs investigators filed their cases with the Denton County District Attorney’s Office, which took the evidence to a grand jury that handed up an indictment March 30 on one count of official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor, and one count of assault.
Police did not say if the man police detained faced any charges or what those may be, nor any other information including his name, age or what area he’s from.