A class action lawsuit has been filed against the city of Ronan, Montana for the employment of on an ineligible police officer, the Missoulian reports. Attorneys say that over 100 people may be able to join the lawsuit. The lawsuit stems from an incident from eleven months ago, when Anthony Chaney and his brother Donald were together at a local bar. Donald, a combat veteran, began experiencing an episode due to post-traumatic stress disorder. Anthony, familiar with these types of episodes, led his brother to a nearby park, held him down, and tried to calm him until the episode past. Officers arrived on the scene more than an hour after the episode began and placed Anthony Chaney under arrest despite his assertions that his brother had PTSD.

1. Class Action Filed Over Ineligible
Police Officer

2. A class action lawsuit has been filed
against the city of Ronan, Montana for
the employment of on an ineligible
police officer, the Missoulian reports.
Attorneys say that over 100 people may
be able to join the lawsuit.
The lawsuit stems from an incident from
eleven months ago, when Anthony
Chaney and his brother Donald were
together at a local bar. Donald, a
combat veteran, began experiencing an
episode due to post-traumatic stress
disorder. Anthony, familiar with these
types of episodes, led his brother to a
nearby park, held him down, and tried to

3. calm him until the episode past. Officers
arrived on the scene more than an hour
after the episode began and placed
Anthony Chaney under arrest despite
his assertions that his brother had
PTSD.
One of the arresting officers, Trevor
Wadsworth, forced Anthony Chaney to
the ground, injuring his neck, during the
arrest. Wadsworth is the son of then
police chief Daniel Wadsworth. Daniel
Wadsworth was later stripped of his
state credentials and suspended from
duty for allegedly hiring his son to the
Ronan police department with full
knowledge that the younger man was
not eligible.
Trevor Wadsworth left the training
academy in 2010 after he failed to
produce a “hire slip” to prove that he
was attending as a member of the

4. Ronan police department. He was hired
in May 2011 without ever having
returned to the academy.
The class action suit brought forward by
Anthony Chaney alleges that his rights,
as well as the rights of all other
Americans were violated under the
Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth and 14th
Amendments to the Constitution. It also
alleges that Trevor Wadsworth
exercised unnecessary force to restrain
and arrest Mr. Chaney. The suit also
alleges that the city of Ronan and its
police department “were deliberately
indifferent to and acted in conscious
disregard for the need to train, supervise
and discipline their law enforcement
officers and reserve officers with respect
to the use of force, arresting individuals,
and investigating the misconduct of law

5. enforcement officers.” Finally, it accuses
the city of Ronan of “conscious
disregard” for the necessity of hiring
eligible officers to its police department.
Read the original article in the
Missoulian to learn more.