Suspended Owasso police officer is same one fired in 2011 for excessive force

Owasso police officers participated in a vehicle pursuit that ended near Nowata on Sunday, and the department is looking into whether excessive force was used against the driver of the vehicle, Chief Scott Chambless said Tuesday in a statement. Chambless didn’t identify the suspended officer and said he would not comment further on the matter until the investigation is complete.

“I don’t think he used excessive force or violated any policy,” said Hunt, adding that he hadn’t seen the police dash-cam video or notice of an internal investigation into the actions of his client. “We will welcome the investigation. We will cooperate, and we will see where it goes from there.”

Hunt said in a telephone interview that he is unaware of the specific allegations against Denton.

Cody Mathews, 25, of Glenpool, was arrested by Tulsa police Sunday after he led officers on a 45-minute pursuit that ended in Nowata County, authorities said. He had fled from police who attempted to stop a stolen 2014 Ford F-150 pickup about 7:35 p.m. in the 1000 block of North New Haven Avenue in Tulsa, Tulsa Police Cpl. Greg Smith said earlier this week.

A Tulsa police helicopter joined the pursuit, which also involved Collinsville police, the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Owasso police. Authorities were eventually able to apprehend Mathews on U.S. 169 in Nowata after the pickup became stuck in mud when Mathews drove off the highway to avoid stop sticks officers had placed in the road, Smith said.

A 19-year-old woman who was in the pickup during the chase was not taken into custody because she claimed Mathews forced her into the vehicle against her will, Smith said.

Hunt said Mathews was driving into oncoming traffic during part of the pursuit.

“Someone could have easily been killed,” Hunt said. “The law actually in such cases says when someone is driving like that, whether or not they are armed, law enforcement officers are allowed to shoot to kill … That’s the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion.

“What I suspect is that (officers) probably used restraint. The fellow was armed. He was obviously extremely dangerous, and he was driving into oncoming traffic.”

A dash-cam police video obtained by the Tulsa World on Wednesday evening shows a pickup traveling north on the southbound lanes of U.S. 169 a couple of miles south of Owasso. At one point during the chase, an officer’s vehicle can be seen bumping the rear of the pickup after the truck had switched to the northbound lanes.

The pickup driver again maneuvers against traffic before veering back into the northbound lanes, where at another point he passes a vehicle on the shoulder.

The driver turns east into a field at the end of the pursuit and is surrounded by several officers, one of whom breaks the driver’s side window. Soon afterward, a different officer can be seen thrusting the barrel of a rifle through that window about six times.

After the driver is removed from the vehicle, the same officer is shown slamming the butt end of the weapon about half a dozen times toward a target that is obstructed from view.

On Tuesday night, the Owasso City Council OK’d a federal court settlement of $75,000 to a Collinsville man who claims that excessive force was used against him by Owasso police during an arrest.

The panel voted 5-0 to approve the settlement for Bryan Scott Spradlin, 30, who contended in his 2012 lawsuit against the city that he was the victim of police brutality — including being elbowed in the face Mike Denton — during his June 2011 arrest on a public intoxication complaint.

The Spradlin settlement was reached May 29 before T. Lane Wilson, a magistrate in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

In his civil rights lawsuit, Spradlin claimed that he had sustained a head injury, swelling and bruising in different parts of his face and body, emotional and psychological trauma and facial cellulitis as a result of the “assault and abuse” that he claims was inflicted on him by Denton and other officers sued in the complaint.

Spradlin contended that he did not receive any medical attention until more than two days later, when he was taken to a hospital.

Following Spradlin’s arrest, the city of Owasso released police videos in which Denton can be seen stepping on Spradlin’s head, stretching his handcuffed arms and elbowing his face.

Denton was fired in November 2011 because his actions violated the Owasso Police Department’s policy on use of force, according to the city.

Arbitrator Edward Valverde, however, ruled in June 2012 that Denton should be reinstated, saying that although the officer used unreasonable and unnecessary force, his actions “did not rise to the level of excessive force within the meaning of existing case law.”

Valverde reduced the discipline from firing to a written reprimand and ordered the city to reinstate Denton with back pay and benefits. Instead of allowing Denton to rejoin the force, the city challenged the reinstatement order in court in July 2012.

A half year later, A Tulsa County associate judge found that an arbitrator-ordered reinstatement of Denton would pose “a special risk of injury, physical and psychological, to citizens and, if he is allowed reinstatement, the department will be faced with explaining why Owasso allows abusive conduct by its officers, which is against the law.”

But in an appeal, Denton was ordered reinstated by the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals in April 2014. Last June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court said it would review the case, but it withdrew its decision to do so in September.

In February, the Owasso City Council approved a budget supplement to extend more than $280,000 in back payments to Denton.