A former Massachusetts police officer has pleaded guilty to assaulting a man during an arrest, nearly two years after resigning from his post.
Justin Chappell, 43, formerly of Weymouth Police Department, responded to a home in July 2022 for reports of an intoxicated man causing a disturbance.
Bodycam footage released last year shows Chappell approaching the man, identified as Donald McAdam, and ordering him to remove his hands from pockets. When McAdam refuses, Chappell whacks him several times in the knees with a baton.
Other officers arrive and handcuff the man. McAdam resists their efforts to place him in a cruiser and hurls racial slurs before Chappell begins punching him repeatedly.
In a corresponding police report, Chappell alleged that he was 'physically assaulted' and 'spit on' before he 'applied four to five distraction techniques with a closed fist' to the top of McAdam's head.
Justin Chappell, 43, has pleaded guilty to assaulting a man during a July 2022 arrest. The former Weymouth police officer resigned before his termination hearing
Bodycam footage released last year shows Chappell repeatedly punching in the head a man identified as Donald McAdam after the man resists arrest
'My intent was to apply enough intensity of those techniques in order to gain compliance,' Chappell wrote in the report.
The former officer had also been accused of using excessive force during a February 2022 arrest, for which he received one day's suspension.
Chappell 'delivered two strikes' to the suspect's head 'with a closed fist,' according to a police report.
The former cop resigned on July 11, just over a week after the incident and before he was set to appear at a termination hearing.
'My experiences, careers, and deployments prior to being a police officer have proven difficult to balance in law enforcement at this time,' Chappell wrote in his resignation notice.
Weymouth Police Chief Richard Fuller officially filed for Chappell's decertification that October, attempting to bar him from becoming an officer anywhere else in the state.
In a news release last month, the U.S. District Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts accused Chappell of punching McAdams 'approximately 13 times with a closed fist without legal justification.'
'The punches caused obvious pain and visible injuries to the man’s head,' the office wrote.
McAdams appeared battered in his mugshot, with swelling above his right eyebrow and trail of blood across the bridge of his nose.
In a corresponding police report, Chappell alleged that McAdam 'physically assaulted' and 'spit on' him
The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission voted to revoke Chappell's certification as a police officer in January
In May of last year, the Weymouth Police Department submitted a report to the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, along with a recommendation that Chappell be decertified.
The commission voted in January to revoke his certification as a police officer.
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Three months later, the 43-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law in federal court.
The charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years behind bars, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
'He certainly regrets losing his composure,' Chappell's attorney, Ken Anderson, said outside court. 'There’s no dispute what he did that on that day and he came to accept responsibility.'
A sentencing has been scheduled for July 16.
Before becoming an officer, Chappell served in the U.S. Army. He toured Afghanistan in 2006, 2007 and 2009, according to a now-deleted post on the Weymouth Police Department's Facebook page.
Chappell also served as a security contractor in Iraq before attending the police academy.
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