An Antioch Police officer leaves the Antioch Police facility on West 4th and N streets in Antioch, Calif., on Thursday, May 11, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
A woman claims two Antioch police officers — including one named in a racist text messaging scandal embroiling the city’s police department — broke her arm while wrongfully detaining her nearly four years ago, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week.
Claudjanae Young, 24, said she was needlessly slammed to the ground and maimed while being arrested at her mother’s house in 2019 by two officers, Devon Wenger and Erik Nilsen. Her lawsuit marks yet another legal challenge against the scandal-ridden Antioch Police Department, which is under investigation by the California Department of Justice after more than half of its officers were discovered to have either sent or received text messages that were racist, homophobic and glorified police violence.
Several officers also remain under investigation by the FBI and Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office for numerous alleged crimes.
Young said the encounter nearly four years ago — and the subsequent revelation of the racist text messages, including messages from Wenger — has left her distrustful of police and their motives.
“You all are there to serve and protect, and y’all aren’t doing either,” Young said of Antioch Police officers in an interview. “Being put in that situation, I don’t know how to separate a good cop from a bad cop.”
The lawsuit centers on an October 2019 incident, when Wenger and Nilsen were sent to investigate reports that several people had stolen items, including costumes, from a Spirit Halloween store in Antioch.
The officers said they were told that a group of people stole “arms full” of merchandise from the store — during which time Young assaulted a security guard there by either punching him in the face or hitting him with a phone, according to a police report by Wenger.
Young’s lawsuit claims that when Wenger and Nilsen tracked down Young at her mother’s house, they acted without an arrest warrant, a search warrant or Young’s consent when they tried detaining her inside her mother’s garage. In the process, the suit said, Wenger grabbed Young’s arms and “slammed her against a wall and then onto the ground.”
“He pushed my right arm all the way up to the back of my head, and my arm popped,” Young said. “I was honestly shocked. I didn’t get a chance to do anything. I couldn’t resist arrest, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t even close the car door. Everything happened so fast.”
“You see videos like this — you never think you’ll be involved in one,” she added.
Young said she had to wait an hour to receive medical care while her wrists were handcuffed behind her back, during which time it felt like “my arm was dangling.” Even after one of the officers’ supervisors arrived, no one on scene intervened to help Young, the lawsuit said.
“Such actions were in conscious and reckless disregard of the risk of injury and under the circumstances, there was no objectively reasonable basis for the defendants’ actions,” suit, which was filed by civil rights attorney Stanley Goff.
Wenger wrote in his report that when he arrived to question Young, she appeared to be holding a Power Rangers outfit, and that a nearby child excitedly told the officers that his mother had just gotten it for him. As the officers were detaining Young, a crowd of people surrounded them — some of whom yelled “honkeys” and “crackers” at the officers, according to the report.
Young denied stealing anything from the Halloween store. However, she later pleaded no contest to charges of shoplifting, and was ordered to stay away from the holiday-themed store, as well as from a Walmart and a Champs store, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
Young’s mother later filed a complaint with the Antioch Police Department’s internal affairs division, which is charged with investigating officers accused of misconduct. While the APD has released police reports, the criminal complaint filed against Young and its initial review of the force Wenger used, the department has not produced any documentation of what, if any, discipline was handed down to Wenger.
Young’s lawsuit comes as nearly half of the Antioch police force who were in text message chains where officers referred to Black people as “gorillas,” “monkeys” and “water buffalo,” as well as numerous homophobic slurs. In other messages, officers spoke openly about falsifying police reports, while praising each other for the brutality of their arrests.
Wenger’s involvement in the texts, which were disclosed by a senior Contra Costa DA inspector and first reported in this newspaper, pertain to body-worn cameras. His text came after another officer lamented that a criminal suspect “didn’t get what he deserved,” because Pittsburg police officers had to wear the devices.
“If Pitt didn’t have all those body cams and that was us…we would have f—– him up more,” the officer said.
“I agree,” Wenger replied, according to the inspector’s report. “That’s why I don’t like body cams.”
The incident involving Young happened before Antioch police were required to wear the cameras. However, her attorney, Goff, specifically noted the existence of the text messages in suing the city of Antioch and the two officers.
Wenger’s attorney, Don Nobles, declined to comment, saying he has not had a chance to thoroughly review the case. Multiple law enforcement sources have previously identified Wenger as one of at least eight Antioch officers under investigation by the FBI.
In comments made to ABC News after the text messages surfaced, Wenger took aim at the investigation into the officers’ text messages.
“Out of both released reports, the initial 21-page report and the secondary 14 page report, I just simply said I do not like body cams,” Wenger told ABC News in the statement. “To put it bluntly, that’s not racist.”
This news organization was unable to immediately identify an attorney for Nilsen.
Young said she left Antioch a couple months after the encounter for her “peace of mind.” She needed medication to fall asleep after the incident, she said, and endured months of rehab on her arm. Even now, she added, her arm doesn’t extend straight.
“The police can turn on you so quick. It’s scary,” she said.
Originally published at Jakob Rodgers