Bethel Pays $10 Million as Officer Accused of Brutality Becomes Police Chief

The City of Bethel, Alaska, has agreed to pay $10 million in settlements across two civil suits alleging excessive force by police officers,  the latest reminder that police brutality remains a deeply troubling and persistent problem in American law enforcement.

The larger $7 million award goes to Bernard Mael, whose case against former officer Jonathan Murphy is among the most disturbing. Body cam footage shows Murphy tasing, pepper spraying, and beating Mael in the head during a December 2023 incident. Despite Murphy radioing colleagues to claim Mael had struck him with a vehicle, the footage shows no such evidence,  yet a fellow officer, Jonathan Bouma, allegedly signed a sworn affidavit supporting Murphy's false account. Mael was charged with felony assault, a charge later dismissed, illustrating how victims of police violence can be further victimized by the very system meant to protect them.

Attorney Myron Angstman, who represented Mael, acknowledged the critical role of recording technology, noting that body cameras "remove a lot of uncertainty about what actually happened." That this even needs to be said underscores how frequently officers' accounts have gone unchallenged.

The remaining $3 million settlement stems from another Murphy-linked incident in October 2023, involving Nicholas Kerr,  a man apparently sleeping in a parked vehicle. Officers pulled Kerr to the ground, tased him, and pepper sprayed him in the face as he screamed that he couldn't breathe. No criminal charges were ever brought against officers in this case.

These are not isolated incidents. Bethel settled a separate misconduct case in 2023 for $275,000, and in 2015 paid $175,000 in an excessive force case involving former officer Andrew Reid,  who pleaded guilty to assault and official misconduct but never returned to serve his sentence. A warrant for his arrest issued in 2017 remains active to this day.

Perhaps most alarming, Murphy,  who faces criminal trial,  now reportedly serves as a chief of police in Diamond City, Arkansas. The cycle of accountability failures continues.

Link: KYUK