On Monday, 7 Action News first revealed the video of what lawyers say is an Allen Park police officer performing an unlawful body cavity search on a prisoner.
Now, the 7 Investigators have discovered that officer in the video is the one who caused Allen Park to make headlines last year with the wrongful arrest of another man.
This traffic stop was caught on camera, but not by the police.
When that video was posted online, a witness came forward to point out that the wrong driver had been locked up. Now that driver says he wishes he had spoken out sooner about the arresting officer, because maybe he could have prevented another injustice.
“It immediately made me feel that I hadn’t done enough with my situation. That I hadn’t publicized it enough, that I hadn’t sought out that this officer was disciplined enough,” said Arthur W. Chapman, Jr.
Now, for the first time, Chapman is talking publicly about his experience with Officer Daniel Mack.
“I won’t stop until I see this officer taken off the force,” said Chapman.
This 27-year-old from Farmington Hills is an executive in the highly regulated casino gaming industry. He can’t have a criminal record, and he has a spotless driving history.
So Chapman was devastated when Mack locked him up.
“Even though I’m a model citizen, educated, gainfully employed – it really would have changed my life for the worse,” Chapman told 7 Investigator Heather Catallo.
Here’s what happened. According to his own police report, on May 8, 2015, Officer Mack was stationed along I-94 near Outer Drive when he saw a black Dodge Challenger fly by him, allegedly going 91 miles an hour. So Mack took off after that driver. But he pulled over Chapman – who was also driving a black Dodge Challenger – and happened to be stuck in traffic at that point.
“He stayed behind me, got on his loud speaker, and said ‘cut the car off and drop the keys out of the window,” said Chapman. "Now I’m looking around, thinking someone’s in trouble, not knowing that he’s talking to me.”
Once Chapman realized Mack was talking to him—he says he tried to de-escalate the situation.
“I told him, ‘officer I have my CPL, I have a weapon on me, my weapon is under the seat.’ He said ‘get out of the [expletive] car right now,” said Chapman.
Chapman says the screaming officer started to attract attention from other drivers stuck in traffic.
“So I yelled back, I’m going to take my right hand, and go for my seatbelt – my seatbelt!! As soon as I hit my seat belt button, he grabbed me under my arm, slung me out of the car, spun me around backwards and put handcuffs on me,” said Chapman.
Officer Mack arrested Chapman for misdemeanor reckless driving, and took him to jail.
“He’s saying you drove the shoulder, you saw me and you drove the shoulder. I’m telling him, I have 22 inch chrome rims on this car, I can’t hit a pothole in Detroit let alone jump the curb at 90 miles an hour like you’re saying I did.”
It was those rims that helped exonerate Chapman, after a witness posted video from his own dash cam online. That’s when people started buzzing about the difference in the 2 Dodge Challengers – and that witness called Allen Park police.
Police reports show, it took that witness 5 different phone calls to get someone at Allen Park Police to listen to him.
“Mack said I don’t need to see the video, because I know I got the right guy,” said attorney David Robinson.
Robinson is suing Officer Mack in 2 separate lawsuits – one for Chapman, the other for the alleged body cavity search. Robinson says internal reports show an Allen Park Sgt. said “he and other supervisors have decided not to talk to Mack about issues due to [the] recent frequency of calls with him and they are just advising citizens with complaints to file a complaint and forward to [the] Chief’s office.”
“He won’t listen to the supervisors,” said Robinson.
Robinson says Mack wasn’t truthful in his police report.
His police report from Chapman’s arrest says: “I pulled out after the suspect vehicle and observed it to be a Dodge Challenger with a personalized plate…” Chapman does have a personalized plate. But the internal reports obtained by the 7 Investigators tell a different story about when Mack noticed that personalized plate.
Mack told a supervisor “He only saw the ‘back of the car and dust.’” He also told his bosses – quote, “I don’t believe I saw the plate,” and “I don’t know why I put that in the report.”
“Every time I brought up, well I’m going to take this to court, his response was ‘good luck, I’ll be in court with you and it’ll be and it’ll be my word against yours,’ which is a weakening feeling to have a police officer be more credible than you - just because of the badge,” said Chapman.
Allen Park does not have scout car cameras or body cams. Chapman is now suing Officer Mack for his use of force and that wrongful arrest.
We did try talking to the Allen Park Police Chief and the city’s lawyer, but they’re not answering our questions because of the pending litigation.
