Glendale Settles After Officer Tased Passenger 11 Times, Including in Genitals While Handcuffed
Won by Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm.
A confidential federal civil rights settlement resolved claims that Glendale, Arizona police officers tased a restrained passenger 11 times during a 2017 traffic stop, including once in the genitals while he was handcuffed face-down on summer pavement.
What happened
On July 26, 2017, Glendale police pulled over a vehicle near a Motel 6 parking lot on suspicion of a blinker violation. Johnny Wheatcroft was a passenger. He was not driving, had not been accused of any crime, and would not be charged with one that day. What followed was captured on body cameras worn by the officers on scene.
Officer Matthew Schneider applied a Taser to Wheatcroft eleven separate times. At one point Wheatcroft was handcuffed, face-down on asphalt in 108-degree heat, and Schneider delivered a shock to his genitals. Security footage later showed that officers could not have observed the blinker violation they cited as justification for the stop. Wheatcroft's children were present throughout the encounter and their cries are audible on the recordings.
ABC15 obtained and published the body camera footage in February 2019, triggering an FBI civil rights investigation and renewed scrutiny of Schneider's conduct. The Glendale department had initially suspended Schneider for three days. After the footage became public, prosecutors reopened a criminal case against him, ultimately charging him with multiple counts of aggravated assault. A federal court later denied Schneider's assertion of qualified immunity, allowing the civil lawsuit to proceed. Schneider eventually retired on an accidental disability claim.
Attorneys Marc Victor and Jody Broaddus filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on behalf of Wheatcroft. The case docketed as 2:18-cv-02347. Depositions were repeatedly delayed, in part because of complications tied to Schneider's simultaneous criminal defense. Expert deadlines and scheduling disputes stretched the litigation across several years.
In late September 2022, the parties reached a settlement following mediation. The City of Glendale did not disclose the payout or total litigation costs. A probate court was required to approve the portion of the settlement allocated to Wheatcroft's minor children before the agreement could be finalized. The settlement terms remain confidential.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.ABC15: Glendale settles lawsuit with man tasered 11 times (2022)·Archived copy
- 2.ABC15: Lawyer for Johnny Wheatcroft, man tased 11 times by Glendale police, talks (2019)·Archived copy
- 3.ABC15: Delays frustrate attorneys in Glendale PD tasering lawsuit; FBI still investigating·Archived copy
- 4.Criminal Legal News: Tased in Genitals During Traffic Stop: Unlawful, Potentially Criminal (March 2022)·Archived copy
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