‘Tough love without the love’ : Cop punched man who swallowed drugs to ‘save’ him

Ofc. Brad Richardson previously made national news for threatening to “make stuff up” about two Black men he wrongfully arrested

Last fall, a cop with a disturbing history punched a man in the chest to get him to cough up drugs, according to an OPA report released earlier this month. Ofc. Bradley Richardson received a three-day suspension for this tactic, which is explicitly forbidden by SPD policy.

On Sept. 16, 2022, Richardson detained a man because he believed he recognized him from a “high offender” bulletin board compiled by Officer Zsolt Dornay (who is something of a “high offender” himself). The Force Review Board unanimously concluded in June that Richardson did not have sufficient cause to detain him and initiated a separate OPA investigation.

During the apparently unlawful stop, the man took a bag out of his pocket and stuffed it into his mouth, prompting Ofc. Richardson and three other officers to take him to the ground. Richardson tried to pry open his mouth while holding his jaw, then punched the man in the chest three times to stop him from swallowing the pills. 

Department policy only allows “reasonable force” to prevent someone from putting drugs in their mouth. Once drugs are swallowed, officers are instructed to call for medical help.  

The man cried out, but Richardson imitated his pleas for help mockingly, saying,  “Uhh, uhh, stop!” 

Richardson berated the man for putting him in a “predicament” where he had to “save” him by punching him in the chest. “You think I want to fucking hit people?” Richardson told the man. “I don’t like to hit people. You’re swallowing shit. You’re trying to kill yourself.” Richardson told the man this was “tough love without love.”

In their analysis, the OPA concluded that Richardson’s punches were clearly prohibited. Furthermore, his belief that the strikes prevented the man from overdosing was “speculative,” according to the report.  

Additionally, the OPA found Richardson to be unprofessional throughout the entire encounter, noting his profanity, hostility, sarcasm, and degrading comments about the arrestee’s body odor. 

This is not the first time Richardson has been reprimanded for his unprofessional and aggressive behavior. In 2017, a woman filed a complaint alleging that Richardson was “emotionally unstable, aggressive, and pushed her against a wall in front of her child when he arrested her unlawfully.” Richardson was so out of line that another officer, who wasn’t sure what crime had been committed, suggested he leave the scene.

Almost two years later, Richardson was given a training referral for antagonizing a man in a parked car. After the man complained about his encounter with SPD, Richardson retorted, “Sorry to hear that, would you like a sticker?”

Richardson was also the subject of a civil suit filed by two Black men for excessive force and racial profiling. In-car audio from the arrest captured Richardson threatening to “make stuff up” to charge the two with robbery. 

In 2019, OPA sustained allegations against another officer for a similar incident. Ofc. Jeffrey Allen struck a man in the neck to prevent them from swallowing narcotics. During the investigation, Allen claimed he used a technique from his former police department called “noxious stimuli” although he admitted he was only “informally trained in it.”

Hired in 2004, Richardson made nearly $235,000 dollars in 2022, with more than $100,000 dollars in overtime.