When I shared the video below in the summer of 2019, the outcry was immediate. It's a dashcam video from an Iowa State Trooper's vehicle showing a pursuit, which ends with a violent hit to the chin of the man who had been riding a motorcycle. The young man, obviously not expecting a blow to the chin from the officer, falls over the motorcycle, which also topples over.

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The 20-year-old man on the motorcycle, 150-pound Bryce Yakish, would end up filing a lawsuit against Robert Smith, a now-retired Iowa State Patrol trooper, and the State of Iowa after the September 25, 2017 incident. Yakish alleged that he was assaulted and falsely arrested by trooper Smith. He also said the trooper lied about what happened and that he did not deserve to be arrested.

The Des Moines Register reports the State of Iowa has settled Yakish's lawsuit by paying him $225,000.

Martin Diaz, one of Bryce Yakish's attorneys, told the Des Moines Register,

I think the behavior of the trooper in this case was so over the top that we just didn’t get the pushback we normally would. The state recognized it had a problem and I think the resolution is a good one.

 

Trooper Smith retired in 2018 and, according to the Des Moines Register, was working as a police officer in Durant, Iowa when this video surfaced. He then resigned.

The Des Moines Register says a grand jury has been looking into an unidentified trooper for violations of civil rights. Cedar County Sheriff Warren Wethington believes that trooper may be the now-retired Robert Smith.

In June of 2019, Wethington announced that he wasn't booking suspects arrested by the Durant Police Department because of one of the department's officer's alleged history of "being untruthful and using questionable force," and that he couldn't "vouch for the integrity of the arrests."

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