It’s been nearly four years since 19-year-old Anton Black died after being detained by two off-duty officers and a Maryland Eastern Shore officer who years before — while employed as an officer with the Dover Police Department — was captured on a police dashcam kicking a subdued suspect in the face so hard that he broke the man’s jaw.
“Dateline NBC’s” Lester Holt will broadcast a yearlong investigation that promises to reveal new details about the case. The story, set to air at 10 p.m. Friday on “Dateline NBC,” will feature interviews with Black’s parents, the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, and will look at warning signs the town of Greensboro, Maryland, received about the officer at the center of the case: Thomas W. Webster IV.
Webster’s policing problems began being cataloged by Delaware Online/The News Journal after word got out in 2015 that a video existed showing the then-Dover police corporal kicking a subdued Lateef Dickerson in the face. The ACLU sued the city of Dover and the Police Department in 2014, claiming Webster assaulted Dickerson during a routine police encounter after a response to a fight at a Dover gas station.
More:Dover cop arrested for felony assault on unarmed man
The ACLU’s lawsuit was filed after a grand jury failed to indict Webster in 2014.
That video, which was recorded on a police dashboard camera, was released to the public in May 2015 — nearly two years after the incident occurred on Aug. 24, 2013.
More:Watch video: Dover police officer kicks suspect
Webster was indicted by a grand jury in 2015 and charged with second-degree assault. In hearings leading up to his trial, it was learned that Webster generated 29 use-of-force reports in his roughly 10 years as a Dover police officer, according to court papers filed by prosecutors.
More:Judge unlikely to allow Dover cop’s history into trial
A jury acquitted Webster of the assault charge in December 2015 and a month later the federal civil rights lawsuit was resolved, with Dickerson receiving a $300,000 settlement. Webster was guaranteed $230,000 over six years in exchange for never working for Dover government again. The six-year deal was roughly half of his prior salary of $68,398 per year.
Civil suit settlement:Man kicked by Dover cop got $300K
Webster leaves Dover:Dover police officer gets $230,000 in separation deal
Webster was hired by the Greensboro Police Department in Maryland’s Easter Shore despite the objections of many leaders, including the then-president of the Central Delaware NAACP chapter, La Mar Gunn.
The then-town’s manager, Jeannette DeLude, told Delaware Online/The News Journal in 2018 that the town went through the interview process and “did a very thorough background check on him and we hired the best-qualified person that we had apply.” DeLude said they were aware of the kicking incident, but “because he was found innocent of everything there is no history.”
Months after he was hired by Greensboro’s police, Webster was removed from street duty after Maryland State Police began investigating the death of Anton Black, who was subdued by Webster and two off-duty officers on Sept. 15, 2018.
More:Maryland town hires former Dover officer acquitted of assault in 2015
More:Former Dover cop who kicked man in face involved in death of Maryland man
More:Authorities release police body cam footage showing final minutes of Anton Black’s life
Maryland officials in early 2019 said Webster may not have been vetted fully in that state. Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said it was informed that Webster was acquitted of the assault charge from the 2013 incident.
But what the agency was not told before Greensboro hired Webster full time was the nearly 30 use-of-force reports in his file during the roughly 10 years he worked for Dover.
By August of 2019, Webster had been removed from the Greensboro department.
Not vetted:Former Dover officer may not have been vetted fully in Maryland
Removed:Former Dover officer removed from Greensboro police staff after use of force reports surface
Webster’s former Greensboro boss, Michael Petyo, pleaded guilty in 2020 to intentionally misrepresenting and omitting facts to a Maryland commission tasked with reviewing the application. At the time of his plea, Petyo, was a police lieutenant in Camden, Delaware. He was placed on administrative leave in November 2019, shortly after Maryland prosecutors charged him with misconduct connected to his previous law enforcement job in that state.
More fallout:Delaware officer Michael Petyo convicted of misconduct while Greensboro police chief
Black’s family filed a federal lawsuit in late 2020, arguing their son’s death was the direct result of officers’ excessive use of force and that public officials conspired to protect those officers from the consequences of their actions.
More:‘I’ve never seen anything so brutal’: Anton Black’s family files use of force suit in death
Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.
