Independence cop pleads guilty, accused of shoving man, shocking motorcyclist with Taser
A former Independence police officer pleaded guilty to a felony charge last week in federal court for an incident in which he admitted to shoving a bystander to the ground last year, injuring the man.
In a separate incident, the officer also allegedly hit a motorcyclist with a Taser without warning as they were both on the road. The victim in that incident told investigators he was driving 15-20 mph at the time, but managed to maintain control of the vehicle.
The two incidents reportedly occurred on back-to-back days in April 2023.
Federal prosecutors filed both a deprivation of rights charge against 25-year-old Drew Wurtz, as well as a plea agreement, Friday, according to U.S. District Court records. Wurtz was released without bond following a hearing Friday.
As part of the plea agreement, the parties are seeking a sentence of probation. No sentencing date has been set.
Wurtz’s attorney, Dawn Parsons, declined to comment.
Wurtz currently has an inactive peace officer license, which means he cannot work for a law enforcement agency, said Mike O’Connell, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Public Safety.
In response to a message seeking comment, Officer Kelley Rupert, a spokesperson for the Independence Police Department, said Wurtz has not been an employee of the department since July 2023. She said any questions about the case should be directed to the investigating agency.
Charging documents describe the victim of the shove, which occurred April 9, 2023, as a “pedestrian on the sidewalk” who was not posing a threat to Wurtz or others. The victim reported experiencing pain and that he did not seek medical attention, “but probably should have as he suffered bruising to his right shoulder and his shoulder still pops,” according to court documents.
The incident occurred after Wurtz responded to a call for service at an apartment complex off Larkspur Lane, according to court documents. There, Wurtz interacted with a man who had just returned from grocery shopping.
Wurtz reportedly told the man, who had a cup of wine in his hand, to “either get inside or go stand to the side, and (the man) said he would stand to the side and told (Wurtz) that he did not need to have an attitude about it,” court documents said.
“The two continued to exchange words until (Wurtz) approached (the victim), knocked the wine cup out of (the victim’s) hand, and immediately shoved him forcefully to the ground.”
Another officer told Wurtz to remove himself from the situation, according to court documents.
“The defendant understood at the time that (the victim) was posing no threat to the defendant or anyone else, and that there was no legitimate law enforcement purpose that would have justified the use of force by the defendant against (the victim),” said the plea agreement signed by Wurtz.
“The defendant knew at the time that the defendant’s actions were wrong and against the law,” it went on to say.
‘Neither the defendant nor his partner reported the use of force’
The charge Wurtz pleaded guilty to relates specifically to the April 9 incident involving the shove, but the plea agreement also includes allegations from the motorcycle incident, which occurred the day before, April 8, 2023.
In that incident, Wurtz was on routine patrol with his partner when they noticed a motorcycle they believed might be stolen, according to court documents. They began to follow, allegedly without activating lights or sirens.
“At some point (Wurtz) asked his partner, who was driving, to get close to the motorcyclist as he was going to tase him,” court documents said. “The officers pulled up next to the motorcyclist at an intersection and (Wurtz) extended his arm out of his lowered window and deployed his taser striking the motorcyclist who accelerated and drove away from the officers.”
“Neither the defendant nor his partner reported the use of force or informed their supervisors about the taser deployment,” court documents stated.
In response to a question about the status of the partner officer and whether they faced discipline for the incident, Rupert, with the Independence Police Department, told The Star she could not comment on personnel matters.
In September, FBI agents interviewed the motorcyclist, who told them he had been riding on a recently purchased motorcycle, for which he did not have a license plate, and so he had carried purchase paperwork with him as he had been pulled over previously, according to court documents.
As he got to the intersection of 23rd Street and Noland Road, he noticed two Independence police vehicles and assumed one of them would pull him over for the license plate issue. He continued on and was not stopped, but saw one of the vehicles follow him through several turns without activating its lights or sirens.
The motorcyclist said he got to a stop sign and accelerated to 15-20 mph when he felt a jolt of electricity through his body and pain in his back.
“(The motorcyclist) said he felt his left side begin to tense up and his right hand jerked the throttle causing him to become unstable but that he ultimately was able to maintain control,” court documents said. “(He) said he was scared so he accelerated and went straight home.”
After he arrived home, his fiancee removed the Taser probes, and the man provided them to the FBI, as well as photos of his injuries.
The department’s Taser policy, provided to The Star by the city of Independence Wednesday, requires an officer to report a use of one of the devices to a supervisor “as soon as practical” and to complete a report prior to the end of their shift.
The policy also notes the devices are “generally authorized to be used in circumstances where grounds to arrest or detain are present and the subject’s actions cause a reasonable officer to believe that the subject is an immediate threat to an officer or civilian and that physical force will be used by the subject to resist the arrest or detention.”
The policy also advises officers to give “proper consideration and care” based on the circumstances to situations in which targets could face an increased risk from a deployment, including when the subject is operating a vehicle or machinery and when the subject might fall and suffer death or a serious physical injury and the circumstances do not justify the risk.
A former Independence police officer was sentenced in 2016 to serve four years in prison for an incident in which he used a Taser on a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop and dropped him on the ground. The ex-officer, Timothy Runnels, also pleaded guilty to a deprivation of rights charge in that matter.
The boy went into cardiac arrest and nearly died, according to previous reporting from The Star. He survived and later sued the city and Runnels, and a jury awarded him $6.5 million.
