Former Wilmington, Delaware officer Samuel Waters was sentenced to probation for assault

WILMINGTON, Del. – A former Delaware police officer convicted of assault and other charges related to a 2021 arrest has been sentenced to probation.

Last year, a jury convicted former Wilmington officer Samuel Waters of assault, official misconduct and tampering with evidence during an arrest that led to demonstrations after videos were posted on social media. He was acquitted of perjury charges in that case, as well as an additional assault charge related to another arrest a few days earlier.

DelawareOnline reports that prosecutors asked for a six-month prison sentence on Friday, but defense attorneys successfully argued that probation would be more appropriate because Waters was released in January 2022 and he still faces a federal trial.

Authorities said Waters confronted a man at a supermarket in south Wilmington in September 2021 after telling police that employees at a nearby daycare were being harassed. Surveillance video shows Waters approaching the man and speaking to him briefly, then grabbing his arm and twisting him toward a plexiglass screen, and finally pushing him against the screen and hitting his head on it twice before they both fall to the ground.

A Wilmington officer who trains others in the use of force testified in court that the department’s training and policies generally do not support throwing a suspect’s head against a wall. Forces to the face, neck and back are considered “red zones” due to the risk of serious injury, and “there was nothing that happened” that would justify that force, he said.

Assistant Attorney General Dan McBride, who heads the Attorney General’s Civil Rights and Public Trust Division, argued that the use of force came just seconds after the clash and described it as “almost an ambush.”

However, Judge Francis Jones said he did not believe Waters posed an ongoing threat to public safety and called the incidents “an isolated incident” before imposing a suspended sentence. Waters’ attorney said his client plans to appeal his conviction.