The Michigan Attorney General’s office has charged a off-duty DeWitt police officer with felony charges connected to a 2021 incident with a Black teen, where he pulled a gun out on him twice without reasonable cause. The teen also has secured legal representation and filed his own federal civil lawsuit.
According to a press release from the state attorney general Dana Nessel, officer Chad Vorce was arraigned on Thursday, April 7, on the below:
- One count of misconduct in office, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/or $10,000
- Felonious assault with a dangerous weapon, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and/or $2,000
- Felony firearm possession: a felony punishable by two years consecutively with and preceding any term of imprisonment imposed for the felony or attempted felony conviction in a Clinton County District Court.
Vorce initially was fired for these crimes, but reinstated months later after the department said “he has learned his lesson” and showed a “genuine demonstration of remorse” for his actions.
The state believes a court of law should determine this.
The AG’s investigation found Vorce, who was not on duty at the time of the incident, broke the law when he pulled a gun out on Alexander Hamilton, a 19-year-old paperboy on Jan. 14, 2021, despite his belief the boy was “driving erratically in his neighborhood.”
Nessel said, “Our assessment of this incident showed dangerous behavior exhibited by Mr. Vorce. Those who swear to protect and serve must do so responsibly. We will not hesitate to hold accountable those who violate that oath.”
A day after these charges were made, Hamilton filed his own federal lawsuit, alleging the 18-year-veteran officer and his colleagues violated his Fourth and 14th Amendment rights by the use of excessive force, illegal seizure, false arrest and false imprisonment on that early spring morning.
He also alleged these state authorities racially discriminated —pointing to Vorce identifying him by race when reporting the incident to others.
The lawsuit, which plays off the young man’s name by using a rendering of the opening song of the Hamilton Broadway musical based on the founding father with the same name, records the teen was on an assigned route to drop off papers when he encountered the off-duty officer.
His lawyer Dustyn Coontz explains his client was in the area of Shadybrook Lane and Driftwood Drive, which is in Watertown Township, Clinton County, around 7:15 a.m., on the day of the altercation only to perform his job’s duties. Vorce saw the teen’s minivan while he was taking his child to school and determined he was “driving in a manner that he claims to have been suspicious.”
“According to Vorce, there had been some theft-related crimes in his neighborhood recently,” the lawsuit states. “Upon seeing a ‘frickin’ Black guy’ in a black hoodie, Vorce became even more suspicious that Hamilton was a potential criminal.”
The officer, who doubled as a volunteer firefighter, approached the teen and asked him what he was doing. Hamilton allegedly responded, “I’m just doing me.”
At this point, frustrated he could not get the answer he wanted, nor the van’s plates to run his tags, he called the Clinton County Central Dispatch for assistance. The claim says the first line of the CAD report read — another indicator that race was an issue — “BLK MALE IN THE AREA JUST DOING ME NEEDS CHECKED.”
Vorce now started to follow Hamilton in his vehicle.
Ultimately, the van backed up on Vorce (twice) and each time, the officer believed this was an attempted assault on him. He reported to “dispatch he was ‘going to go shots fired’ if Hamilton did it again.”
Hamilton alleged he was trying to get away, but that Vorce’s vehicle gave him no room for him to make a U-turn.
The officer claimed at this time the teen tried to “ram” his truck again, got out of his truck and “pulled his pistol out on Hamilton” the first time.
When he returned to his truck, he told dispatch, the lawsuit alleges, “this was now a priority call and that things would ‘turn out really bad’ if help didn’t arrive quickly.”
Simultaneously, Hamilton said, fearful for his life, he tried to escape to a public place, the Sunoco (AKA Tailgaters) at 3955 Ernest Way, thinking Vorce would not do anything violent there.
Vorce continued to challenge the teen, but this time using “wigwagging” headlights” and “emergency light” to represent himself in his occupational capacity. When he emerged from the vehicle, he identified himself as a police officer, before pulling out the gun on Hamilton for the second time.
The lawsuit reveals Officer Clyde Smith, a cop that works in the same department as Vorce, arrived at the scene, despite the location of this incident being out of the jurisdiction of the DPD.
“Smith has claimed he responded because he was close to the scene and was there to assist Michigan State Police in its investigation and that he didn’t know Vorce was the complainant,” the lawyer writes. “But Smith would’ve known from radio traffic that Vorce—or “7602” or “602,” as dispatch routinely called him—was the complainant.”
The filing says Smith removed the delivery driver from his van and started to arrest “him citing the possibility that Hamilton committed assault with a dangerous weapon by trying to ram Vorce.”
During this process, Michigan State police trooper Luke Shafer arrived on the scene. He and Smith interviewed both Hamilton and Vorce, but did not stop their colleague from engaging the teen.
Shafer later consulted with two other sergeants at the Lansing Post and found there was no basis to arrest Hamilton.
Hamilton’s lawsuit names Vorce, Smith, DeWitt police chief Bruce Ferguson and the City of DeWitt as defendants.
It claims the ordeal has caused the plaintiff to “suffer emotional distress” and the officer’s actions were “extreme and outrageous.”
The city and chief are listed as “Smith was in uniform and responded to the scene in a marked patrol car, so everything he did here was plainly under the color of State Law,” operating with an authority those parties gave him.
He is suing for damages for the “emotional and psychological injuries” caused by being exposed to police-involved violence, “punitive damages for the defendants’ intentional and outrageous conduct demonstrating evil motive and a reckless or callous indifference to Hamilton’s rights” and lawyer fees.
Hamilton also wants Vorce to be barred from law enforcement “until the day he dies.”
Vorce has not answered the lawsuit and is scheduled to appear before Judge Michael E. Clarizio in the 65A District Court. On April 28, at 2 p.m. for a preliminary exam in regard to his state charges.
