LANSING, Mich. – An appeal was filed in the dismissal of a Michigan State Police trooper and two Saginaw police officers accused of punching a man unconscious while he was handcuffed in 2022.
During a traffic stop in March 2022, a Trooper Zachary Tebedo allegedly punched a Saginaw man in the head while handcuffed and knocked him out unconscious. Emergency medical vehicles responded to evaluate the man and left the scene.
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Tebedo then allegedly assaulted the man while trying to secure him in the back of a state police vehicle.
Attorney General Dana Nessel said Saginaw Police Officers Jordan Engelhart and Dominic Vasquez were present at the scene and accused them of failing to intervene with the assaults.
Nessel charged each with one count of Willful Neglect of Duty in August 2022. In November, a judge dismissed the charges, ruling the officers’ failure to intervene in the use of excessive force by another officer does not constitute Willful Neglect of Duty.
“When these officers took the victim into their custody, they assumed a duty and obligation to keep him safe from further harm, and that includes further harm perpetrated by a fellow officer,” said Nessel. “The district court judge ruled these officers did not have a legal duty to intervene in the criminal use of excessive force by another officer against a handcuffed man in their custody, and we plainly disagree. We stand by these charges, that this was willful neglect of duty, and look forward to making our case in the Circuit Court that they were correctly filed.”
The attorney general argued Trooper “Tebedo and Officers Engelhart and Vasquez had a duty based on the U.S. Constitution as well as the Michigan Constitution to protect” the victim “from further harm while he was handcuffed and in their custody.”
“At a minimum the allegations and the law cited by the People raise a question of fact for a jury of the officer’s peers to decide whether they have committed the crime of Willful Neglect of Duty,” she said.
