HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Years before a Warren police officer faced criminal charges over a violent tasing, he engaged in similar misconduct in Highland Park that a sergeant warned put the city in legal peril and “should not be brushed aside lightly.”
But it was, a 7 News investigation reveals, and allowed the officer to be hired the following year by a different agency, where another violent tasing would trigger a six-figure settlement paid by taxpayers and felony charges against the officer and his partner.
RELATED: Warren officials kept criminal charges, $400k settlement against 2 cops quiet
The case of former Warren officer Dammeon Player, who pleaded not guilty to assault charges last year, is just the latest in a series of reports by WXYZ revealing how troubled, sometimes dangerous police officers had their badges taken by one department, only to be hired by another.
Changes to Michigan law in 2018 were designed to hamper troubled officers from jumping from department to department, but the cases revealed by 7 News show how problem officers have been able to game the system.
The first tasing
On a rainy afternoon in May of 2020, Highland Park Public Safety Officer Dammeon Player was called to the Burger King along Woodward Avenue, responding to a call of a man loitering outside the restaurant.
Public safety officers work as both police officers and firefighters. On this day, Player was working a police shift.
The man, who police would later suspect was homeless, ignored the officer’s commands to leave the restaurant. So from the front seat of his police car, Officer Player does what department policy says he shouldn’t: he pulls out his taser and takes aim.
The taser didn’t take effect, so Player is seen getting out of his vehicle and begins following the man, who starts to cross the street while hurling expletives.
Before long, Officer Player joins in with name calling of his own. At one point, Player calls the man a homophobic slur.
RELATED: How a troubled Michigan cop moved from department to department, leaving scandal in his wake
After trading insults, both men appear to walk away. But just as the standoff appears to becoming to an end, officer Player turns around and follows the man again.
The man briefly assumes a fighting stance before turning around and walking away. Then, with the man’s back facing the officer, Player deploys his taser again and then takes the man to the ground.
VIDEO: Body cam shows tasing incident in Highland Park
As Player takes the man down, he strikes his head hard on a concrete building, then lays motionless on the wet pavement.
“Yo, wake up man,” Player says as the man appears unconscious.
The video of the tasing was released to 7 News Detroit by Highland Park's new mayor, Glenda McDonald, who overruled her own attorney’s advice to withhold the video from WXYZ. McDonald insisted that it be released.
Both Mayor McDonald and Chief James McMahon say that the video is ugly, but that they didn’t want to hide the misconduct that had previously been concealed under a prior administration.
‘Should not be brushed aside’
James McMahon, a sergeant with Highland Park police at the time of the incident, reviewed Player’s conduct and spoke with 7 News Detroit earlier this month.
“What does it say to you that officer Player tased the man while he had his back to him?” asked Channel 7’s Ross Jones.
“In this case, it wasn’t appropriate,” said McMahon, who was a sergeant with Highland Park police at the time of the incident. “The taser should not have been used in that instance.”
The man would eventually regain consciousness and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. He was charged with nothing.
An internal affairs investigation concluded that officer Player violated the department’s code of conduct and taser policy.
"It’s a scary situation, someone just hit their head,” McMahon said. “It’s not a situation where we should have been involved in that. It’s disappointing. That individual didn’t deserve that.”
In an internal memo dated July 25, 2020 sent to then-Chief Kevin Coney, McMahon wrote that Player’s misconduct “dangerously escalated the situation" and caused injury to the subject of the investigation.
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“These actions could place the city in a position of civil jeopardy and should not be brushed aside lightly,” the memo said, recommending a 30-day suspension from police services, a 7-day suspension from fire services and training in de-escalation techniques.
But Player was not disciplined, McMahon said.
“The legal department just removed him from police services, but allowed him to work fire department,” McMahon said.
Significantly, the case was not sent to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for review and possible criminal charges.
McMahon, who is now police chief, said that the case would be referred to the prosecutor's office today.
‘Just wasn’t dealt with’
The following year, Officer Player would join the Warren Police Department. There to pin his new badge to his chest was then-Highland Park Police Chief Kevin Coney.
“Hopefully,” Player said after receiving his badge, “I can represent the city well, my family well.”
But less than two years later, his conduct would lead to even more trouble.
On a rainy day last June, officer Player and his partner would be involved in a traffic stop in Center Line—outside of their jurisdiction—pulling a truck driver out of his vehicle.
Player’s partner threw the man to the ground as Player tased him repeatedly.
VIDEO: Body cam shows tasing incident in Warren
The man was charged with nothing, but the officers’ conduct was so egregious that the city of Warren paid out a $400,000 settlement barely a month later. Player and his partner were charged with assault and then fired.
In an interview this month, former Highland Park police chief Kevin Coney said he remember almost nothing about Player’s tasing from 2020, even though Player’s body camera shows Coney responding to the scene that day.
It shows that Player approached Coney, telling him: “I ain’t gonna lie, my heart stopped. I thought I killed that man.”
RELATED: A Detroit cop faced firing for Greektown punch—until Eastpointe gave him a badge
Coney was fire chief on the day of the tasing, and would be appointed police chief weeks later while Player’s conduct was being investigated.
It was during his time as chief that Coney was sent the July 2020 memo, urging punishment for Player and saying his "actions should not be brushed aside lightly.”
Coney said he didn’t remember the memo, and was not sure if he ever read it.
VIDEO: Extended interview with ex-Highland Park Police Chief Kevin Coney
The memo was never shared with Warren police when they came to review Player’s personnel file and, according to the city’s background investigation, Chief Coney gave his officer a clean bill of health.
He “had no issues” with Player, a Warren investigator wrote, and there was “no discipline” in his file. In fact, when Player left Highland Park, Chief Coney reported to state officials that he departed in good standing.
McMahon said that was not accurate, and that the department should have reported that he resigned while under investigation.
“Three years later, he was criminally charged over the very same kind of conduct that Highland Park helped to conceal,” said Chanel 7’s Ross Jones to Coney.
“Highland Park didn’t conceal,” Coney said, later adding: “It just wasn’t dealt with, that’s all.”
Attorneys for Dammeon Player declined to comment for this story. The former officer and his partner are due in court on July 11. Player faces up to five years in prison.
Coney left the Highland Park Police Department in 2021. He insists today that, while he was chief, he was largely just a figurehead, and that then-city attorney Terry Ford approved all firings and discipline—including that of Dammeon Player.
Ford would not return repeated calls, texts, an e-mail and a letter at his house seeking comment.
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
