Topeka Officer Accused of Excessive Force for Throwing Handcuffed Black Man to the Ground on Video

Topeka police here received their third dose of bad publicity in six months with the release Thursday of a DVD file showing a sergeant grabbing a suspect by the neck and wrestling him to the ground at the county jail. The question was whether Sgt. Steve Thompson used excessive force in booking the suspect into the Shawnee County Jail. The incident, which occurred about 3:30 a.m. April 2, was captured on a jail camera, and the county commission made it public Thursday. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is examining the incident, which also prompted interim Police Chief Steve Harsha to publicly apologize to the city's residents.  "There is no excuse for substantiated misconduct of any kind, and we will hold our employees accountable," Harsha said during a news conference. KBI Deputy Director Kyle Smith said his agency was asked Wednesday by the district attorney's office to look into the matter. Thompson, 34, was placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation. He joined the department in June 1994. The incident occurred about a month after Harsha disciplined two detectives for making racially charged statements in e-mails and a letter to the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, criticizing a newspaper column she wrote. [MORE]

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