Wichita officer who aligned with Three Percenters arrested on suspicion of DUI

A longtime Wichita police officer who was suspended in the recent text message scandal has been arrested.

Chad William Spain, who in messages affiliated with the extremist militia group the Three Percenters, was arrested after a traffic stop Monday night on suspicion of driving under the influence and transporting an open container. The 49-year-old was off-duty when he was arrested by a Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputy near MacArthur and K-42, the Wichita Police Department said in a news release.

He has since been released on an own-recognizance bond.

The 23-year department veteran was originally given non-discipline coaching and mentoring for the messages he sent to former Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Justin Maxfield between 2017 to 2020. The messages between them included multiple references to the Three Percenters, joking about beating people and other inappropriate messages.

Spain and others were suspended after the city reopened the case following an Eagle investigation that detailed some of the messages and the light discipline. After reopening the investigation, Spain was given a 15-day suspension, put on desk duty and ordered to be cleared by a psychologist before going back to work.

Spain, who works patrol in the west bureau, has been placed on leave pending the outcome of the criminal case and internal investigation. The sheriff’s office wouldn’t say what led to Spain being pulled over.

Three percenters, text messages

In February 2018, Spain sent a photo of a personal bag with several patches, including an American flag, city of Wichita logo, his name and the following phrases: “(Expletive) around and find out,” “Surprise (expletive homophobic epithet)” and “Don’t tread on me.”

In January 2019, Maxfield messaged Spain that he had just used a Taser on a driver and then hit the driver’s brother in the head with a flashlight.

“Stupid Mexicans,” he wrote.

Spain replied that it’s been a “looooong time since I got to chilli whop a dude with my flashlight. Course we’ve always had the plastic streamlight so you’d just break the (expletive) thing. Good for you getting some licks in Sarge.”

The next month, Maxfield sent a photo of a Three Percenters logo. Spain gave a thumbs up. A couple months after that, Maxfield sent a photo of a soldier carrying an AR-style rifle while standing in front of an American flag.

Maxfield followed it by saying: “Three per” and Spain replied: “(Expletive) Yeah 3per.”

In January 2020, Maxfield joked about killing 140 million Muslims.

“Bah! Awesome,” Spain replied.

Some members of the Three Percenters are among those charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Following the attack, Spain, who was only identified by a letter, “expressed a fundamental ignorance to the (Three Percenters) extremism and some of its members’ propensity to violence” and has “expressed remorse,” City Manager Robert Layton said during a news conference announcing multiple suspensions.

The Eagle was able to identify multiple officers involved, including Spain, through sources. The Eagle is not naming those sources to protect them from retaliation.

Spain’s arrest comes just days after the release of Jensen Hughes’ report of problems within the department. The city ordered the report as a result of public outcry following the Eagle’s story. Wichita officials have promised to follow the recommendations in the report.

Messages found

The messages were discovered in April 2021 when police investigators searched Maxfield’s phone in a domestic violence case.

The messages contained a photoshopped image of naked Black man sitting on the head of George Floyd, officers joking or talking casually about beating and shooting people and other racist and inappropriate messages.

Investigators originally found messages involving a dozen Wichita officers, who were or had been on the SWAT team, and three deputies. The deputies all resigned or retired under long suspensions.

The only Wichita officer originally suspended was one who called former Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay a tool.

When the city reopened the text message case, investigators found or learned about messages sent by two more Wichita officers and a couple of Wichita firefighters, who had also served on the SWAT team.

Four officers have now been suspended in the case; two of them have since resigned.

A committee report found Ramsay, former deputy chief Chester Pinkston, who left in February, and deputy chief Jose Salcido responsible for the light discipline and mishandled investigation. The messages were never brought to the district attorney, as required under federal law, so that the potential bias of the officers could be disclosed to people convicted or accused of a crime in cases involving those officers.

Pinkston, Salcido and former deputy chief Wanda Givens then fired back in a lawsuit claiming that there is corruption and wrongdoing at City Hall that they tried to weed out. They are asking for a jury trial and $2.4 million.