Sterling Heights OKs $265K settlement in case that accused cop of teen's wrongful arrest

The Sterling Heights City Council approved a $265,000 settlement to resolve a federal lawsuit that accused a police officer of a wrongful arrest of a high schooler as he waited for his father to pick him up from work.

Details were not initially made public after the council voted last week to approve the agreement because of a confidentiality clause in the settlement.

The city released a copy of the settlement agreement to the Free Press on Thursday under a Freedom of Information Act request.

"It is very common for parties to agree to confidentiality as part of settlement of a civil lawsuit," Melanie Davis, a spokesperson for the city, said in an email Thursday. "With that said, if the parties agree to confidentiality, the City always carves out an exception to confidentiality to allow disclosure through a Freedom of Information Act request, or when otherwise required by law, to preserve the public's right to request and review that information."

Logan Davis, then 18, was arrested after being accused by officer Jeremy Walleman in April 2019 of loitering outside of a closed business while waiting for his father to pick him up from work. At the time of the encounter, Davis was standing two doors down from his job at a sub shop on Van Dyke Avenue.

The City Council voted at the Sept. 5 meeting to approve the settlement agreement and resolve the federal lawsuit Davis filed in 2020. The agreement was among several items on the consent agenda the council voted unanimously to approve all at once. One council member was absent from the meeting.

Three council members declined to comment when reached by the Free Press this week and requests for comment from City Manager Mark Vanderpool, City Attorney Marc Kaszubski, Mayor Michael Taylor and three other council members, went unanswered.

A Sterling Heights police spokesperson and Walleman, who the spokeperson confirmed still works for the department, also did not comment on the settlement when reached.

David Robinson, an attorney who has represented Davis, said they are satisfied with the settlement and that "it's a resolution and Logan can get on with his life now." Robinson said he couldn't comment on the terms or amount of the settlement because it's confidential.

Davis' case was featured in a 2021 Free Press investigation into the use of resisting and obstructing charges in Michigan. The investigation found the charge carries harsh penalties under state law and disproportionately impacts the state's Black residents.

Davis was charged under city ordinances with misdemeanor charges of loitering and resisting. Court records showed both charges were dropped. He alleged in the lawsuit that he was wrongfully investigated and arrested and that he was retaliated against for exercising his First Amendment rights.

According to Walleman's police report, he decided to investigate after seeing someone standing near closed businesses on Van Dyke and wrote that his "first thought was that the subject was possibly acting as a look out for a possible break in."

Video of the arrest shows Davis was approached by Walleman, who asked for his name. Davis gave his first name, but when Walleman asked for his last name he questioned why he needed it.

"I'm telling you right now, when I request that you identify yourself, I have a lawful reason to stop you, you have to identify yourself," Walleman said at one point.

"What is your reason?" asked Davis, who used his phone to record the encounter, which was also captured by the patrol vehicle's dash camera.

"Because you're standing in front of a closed business and you're loitering," Walleman said.

Davis asked how he was loitering when he had just gotten off of work and was waiting for his dad, Walleman responded: "How am I supposed to verify that, brother?"

In the video, Davis appears to point at his work shirt from the nearby sub shop. In a court filing, attorneys for Walleman said it was dark outside and the officer never saw whether Davis was wearing a shirt from the sub shop.

When Davis refused to produce his ID, Walleman told him to turn around and put his hands behind his back, but Davis repeatedly called the arrest illegal and, eventually, the officer slammed him to the ground, the video shows.

After being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle, Davis knew he was being recorded by the in-car camera and said: "You see what they do to Black, young men in America who are just minding their business?"

In a statement dated June 9, 2020, after the city learned the federal lawsuit had been filed, Sterling Heights Police Chief Dale Dwojakowski called the encounter an isolated incident and said the department had taken several steps to address the situation, including disciplinary action and additional de-escalation training for the officer. Dwojakowski, the news release says, also met with the family to review the video and "clarified the reason for the approach and arrest and apologized."

"We are committed to ensuring our police department lives our philosophy of continuous improvement and doing all we can to ensure positive race and community relations and dialogue with all those we serve while fulfilling the oaths we all took to uphold and protect our constitution and community and act with integrity and character," Dwojakowski's statement said.

The night of the incident, Davis was worried when he saw the officer pull into the parking lot, he told the Free Press during an interview in 2021.

He said: “The first thing I thought was, ‘Am I about to get shot tonight?’”

Contact Gina Kaufman at gkaufman@freepress.com. Follow her on X @ReporterGina

Contact Kristi Tanner at ktanner@freepress.com. Follow her on X @midatalove

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sterling Heights OKs $265K settlement agreement to resolve lawsuit