Police Account of Devin Butler Arrest Disputed by Eyewitnesses

“He was abused, and wrongly arrested. He never tackled an officer and he never intentionally hurt anyone. He had no reason to be tazed because he was never resisting arrest, and he was already on the ground complying when they tazed him.”

The report from the South Bend Police alleges that Butler not only resisting arrest, but also picked up an officer and slammed him to the ground.  Butler is currently still in a walking boot after breaking his foot in the off-season.

Bailey told the SBT that Butler was approached from behind by police and was unaware of who was grabbing him.

“Reports say that Devin did all of these aggressive things but in reality, he was grabbed by the police from behind and never told who was grabbing him or why they were grabbing him,” Bailey wrote. “Devin felt he was doing the right thing but out of nowhere was arrested for simply stopping an argument. He felt he had no reason to be detained.”

Butler was formally charged on Tuesday with two felonies and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.  Butler appeared in front of the court in the same walking boot that he is still wearing as he recovers from the broken foot.  He reportedly just was came off of crutches last week the day before the alleged incident.

It is worth noting that the police officer at the center of this incident has a bit of a checkered past.  Officer Aaron Knepper has been involved in the three separate incidents in the past four years.  In 2012, Knepper and two other officers entered a home without a warrant and tazed a 17 year old whom they confused for the teen’s older brother.  A jury ruled this month all three acted unconstitutionally in entering the home, but awarded damages of just $1.

Also in 2012, Knepper and the same officers were suspended without pay for allegedly mistreating a 7-Eleven store clerk by pressuring him into performing stunts such as the cinnamon and saltine cracker challenges.

More salient to the incident involving Butler, this is not the first time that Knepper has been involved in case of alleged resisting arrest and assault of an officer.  In 2014, Knepper pulled over then 55 year oldTom Stevens (a South Bend golfer) and his mother for a routine traffic stop.

Stevens was eventually charged with six felonies but both he and his mother refuted the charges.  They claimed that Stevens did not hit Knepper and that Knepper was overly aggressive.  Stevens spent three days in the hospital following his arrest due to injuries sustained and later plead guilty to one charge of resisting arrest while the other six against him and a misdemeanor charge against his mother were dropped.

From a football perspective, Butler remains suspended indefinitely until his legal matters are sorted.  Those legal matters look to be much less cut and dry than they originally appeared last weekend with eye witness accounts directly contradicting the South Bend Police’s version of the events.