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A victory and a loss for man Tasered while naked by SWAT officers who mistook shampoo for weapon

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A Texas man who says he has lost his life savings in the legal aftermath of a bungled 2011 SWAT team raid won his criminal case last month but saw his civil suit tossed out of court.

Jurors acquitted Chad Chadwick last month on a charge of interfering with police, My Fox Houston reports in stories here and here. It wasn’t the first attempt to charge Chadwick over alleged conduct during the raid, the story says. A grand jury in Fort Bend County, Texas, refused to indict him on a charge of assaulting a police officer, and charges of resisting arrest were dropped.

Chadwick contended in a civil lawsuit that a regional SWAT team responding to a call for a wellness check on Sept. 27, 2011, found him naked in the shower in his Missouri City apartment, mistook a bottle of Axe shampoo or body wash for a weapon, used a Taser to shock him, and dropped him on his face.

U.S. District Judge Gray Miller of Houston granted summary judgment to the defendants Nov. 12. Miller dismissed claims against individual officers because they were added as defendants after the statute of limitations had passed. He dismissed claims against the municipalities of Missouri City, Sugarland and Stafford, saying one had played no part in the raid decision and there was no evidence two others were the moving force behind the alleged constitutional violations. An appeal is planned.

Miller outlined the allegations in his decision (PDF). A co-worker of Chadwick’s called police on Sept. 27, 2011, to report that Chadwick appeared despondent after speaking with his wife, who said she was not going to move from San Antonio to live with him in Houston, where he had recently moved.

Chadwick had been drinking heavily and did not respond when the officers tried contacting him with a bullhorn, though it is unclear whether it was working or used correctly, the opinion said. Officers broke down the door and saw Chadwick in the shower, leaning forward, motionless. The officers said they saw something red that they believed to be blood, though it was actually a tattoo and the color was black.

Officers asked to see Chadwick’s hands, spurring him to pivot toward the officers while holding a black object in his hand. Officers fired a nonlethal round at Chadwick, striking him in the bicep. One officer who heard the noise mistakenly thought Chadwick had fired at the officers, while another officer proclaimed that Chadwick had a gun. It turned out the “gun” was actually a black bottle of Axe shampoo or body wash.

Officers lobbed a flash bang grenade into the bathroom. When the smoke cleared, officers saw Chadwick standing naked with nothing in his hands. Officers used a shield to pin Chadwick against the wall. Two officers testified Chadwick began throwing punches, so they called for deployment of the Taser.

Chadwick says he was stunned twice with the Taser, while one of the officers believed only the second shock worked. Chadwick claims that officers grabbed him by his right arm and genitalia to drag him out of the bathtub.

Officers tried to get Chadwick to stand up, but Chadwick says he couldn’t do so because his body was limp from the Taser. When police tried to raise him, Chadwick says, they dropped him on his head. He claims the raid caused permanent ringing in his ears, severe headaches, pain in his genitalia, and emotional and mental distress.

Chadwick says criminal charges should never have been brought. “They tried to make me a convict,” Chadwick told My Fox Houston. “It broke me financially, bankrupted me. I used my life savings, not to mention, I lost my kids.”

Since the initial story has aired, he has received an outpouring of support and heard from his daughter. “I got the most amazing response and she told me how proud she was. This is helping, this is definitely helping,” Chadwick told My Fox Houston.

Hat tip to the Marshall Project.