This story has been updated to include dash cam video and statement from Madison Police Chief John Patterson.
Madison’s Independent Police Monitor found that Madison police officers caused the death of Richard Lee Johnson through prone restraint, excessive force and failure to render aid, and subsequently omitted key details on their use of force in official reports of the incident, according to a report published Monday.
Independent Monitor Aeramique Glass said in the report and an accompanying press release that an autopsy mistakenly found that Johnson died as a result of cocaine overdose, a conclusion contradicted by an independent medical examiner who reviewed the autopsy report.
The report comes after Johnson’s mother, Gloria Johnson, filed a complaint with the Office of the Independent Monitor.
Emails reviewed by Madison365 further indicate that Madison police are aware that Gloria Johnson has retained an attorney for potential legal action against the city.
In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Madison Police Chief John Patterson said he supports the officers involved.
“A review at the end of 2025 by the MPD’s Professional Standards and Internal Affairs Office (PSIA) determined that the officers involved in this arrest acted within MPD policy and procedures, and current training and standards. All three officers were returned to full duty status. I support this decision,” he wrote. “I also support the officers involved who did everything that we train them to do and expect them to do in a situation like this one involving Mr. Johnson.”
The incident
According to Glass’s report, Richard Johnson, a 32-year-old Black man, was homeless and staying at the Best Western Hotel on Madison’s far East Side. On December 30, 2024, he allegedly posed as a valet to steal a fellow guest’s truck. Those guests called police, and told them a firearm was in the truck. Officer W, still in training, and officer L, his training supervisor, arrived to investigate.
Madison365 is not naming the officers because the allegations against them are severe and serious, and Madison365 has not yet had the opportunity to independently examine all available video and audio evidence. We intend to do so in the coming days.
Glass’s report says Johnson returned in the allegedly stolen truck and parked it at the hotel. He then came into the hotel lobby, only to turn and leave after seeing police. Officer W followed him out and told him he was being detained, but did not handcuff him initially.
Glass’s report says that while speaking with Officer W, Johnson attempted to flee, and Officer W tackled him to the ground and attempted to place him in handcuffs while straddling his midsection. According to the report, another officer, Officer G, arrived and placed his knee across Johnson’s shoulder blades and immobilized him, pressing his head into the ground, as captured by Officer G’s dashcam video.
Video of the arrest is below. Some viewers may find it disturbing.
Johnson was breathing heavily and complained of chest pain, so officers called for EMS, which arrived four minutes later. Less than four minutes later, they cleared Johnson for transport to jail, noting that he was alert and told them he didn’t need to go to the hospital.
Glass’s report refers to “the absence of any head movement” indicates excessive force was being applied; however, video shows Johnson lifting his head several times while Officer G is kneeling across his shoulder blades, after Officer G seems to lessen the pressure on Johnson’s shoulders.
“It was unknown to officers at this time whether Mr. Johnson was armed with the firearm that was reported to be in the stolen vehicle, or another weapon,” Patterson wrote in his statement. “Prone positioning and controlling a subject’s head during handcuffing is a trained technique in the State of Wisconsin known as multiple officer ground handcuffing in the Defense and Arrest Tactics Manual.”
During the 29-minute drive to the Dane County Jail, Johnson was groaning and breathing heavily, the report says, citing in-car audio and video. In later investigative interviews, Officer L described him as angry and “growling and yelling” and kicking the back of her seat; Officer W, on the other hand, described him as “moaning and groaning” but not “mad or anything like that,” and noted that the kicking seemed “uncontrollable.”
Glass’s report says that audio and video recorded inside the squad car corroborate Officer W’s interpretation of events more than Officer L’s.
Johnson slumped over and became quiet a few minutes before they arrived at the jail, and was unresponsive when officers opened the back doors of their squad car to take him out. They administered multiple doses of Narcan, a medication that counteracts opioid overdose, and began administering chest compressions several minutes later. EMS soon arrived and transported Johnson to the hospital, where he died around 4:00 pm the next day.
Mistaken cause of death?
In a report issued nearly nine months later, in September 2025, the Dane County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Johnson’s death was accidental due to complications from cocaine toxicity. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne declined to bring charges against the officers involved, and they were allowed to return to full duty.
Glass’s report, however, notes that when Johnson arrived at the hospital, no cocaine was in his blood, only inactive cocaine metabolites, indicating he could not have died from cocaine overdose.
In March 2026, Glass retained forensic pathologist Dr. Victor Weedn, who at the time was deputy medical examiner for Washington, DC, to review the autopsy reports.
Glass told Madison365 she did not know at the time that Weedn had applied to work at the Dane County Medical Examiner’s office, which he has subsequently joined.
Weedn concluded that Johnson died from “prone restraint cardiac arrest” and metabolic acidosis brought on by being restrained in a prone position with weight across his shoulders for multiple minutes, which, Weedn said, can reduce air flow by up to 25%. He further noted that Johnson was brought to a standing position without first being placed in a lateral “recovery position,” and that officers did not check on him when he lost consciousness on the way to the jail.
“But for police actions, Mr. Johnson would not have died,” Weedn wrote in his report. He also noted, however, that the officers did not intend to harm Johnson, and that EMS first responders followed protocols according to the information they were given.
Weedn also noted in his report that prone restraint cardiac arrest is not well-known in the emergency medical community, nor among medical examiners. He called the Dane County Medical Examiner’s determination of cocaine overdose a “common and understandable misconception.”
Patterson said in his statement that he informed the District Attorney’s office of Weedn’s conclusions.
Key information omitted
Glass’s report also found that Officer G omitted his use of force – especially pushing Johnson’s head into the ground – in both his written reports and interviews with MPD investigators.
Additionally, she found that the officers did not provide the first EMS responders with adequate information, including that Johnson had been tackled, had said he couldn’t breathe, and had not been placed in a recovery position.
She also found that Madison police did not follow their own standard operating procedures, which require hospital clearance before transport to jail for anyone who sustains traumatic injury prior to arrest, is suspected of a drug overdose, or exhibits chest pain or shortness of breath.
“Richard Johnson met all three conditions,” Glass wrote in a press release. “He was transported directly to jail.”
Recommendations
In the report, Glass makes a number of recommendations, including:
- Immediate meeting between MPD leadership, the Office of the Independent Police Monitor, and Weedn to receive a presentation on prone restraint cardiac arrest, its warning signs, and why existing protocols were insufficient to prevent this death.
- Review of the official cause and manner of death, consistent with Dr. Weedn’s independent forensic findings.
- Mandatory medical transport following any incident involving a foot pursuit, physical struggle, or prone restraint, even if a subject says they don’t need it.
- Mandatory communication of force and restraint information to EMS, in policy and in practice.
- Protocol for silence during transport: when a subject who has been making noise goes suddenly silent, that silence should be treated as a medical emergency.
A Madison365 reporter will attend the noon press conference, and we will update our reporting later today. Additionally, we intend to review video and audio evidence in the coming days, and we will update this story if Madison Police issue a statement in response to the report.
