Body-cam footage shows ex-Pierce County major after wreck involving family
Body-camera footage obtained by The News Tribune shows former Pierce County Sheriff’s Maj. Chadwick Dickerson after he crashed his pickup into an SUV carrying a family of six near Graham on July 12.
The News Tribune requested through public records all body- and dash-camera footage taken by Sheriff’s Office deputies and personnel who were on the scene of the crash. The two body-camera videos that have been released in a first installment were taken by deputies Kevin Pressel and Jordan Williams, who are both identified by name in charging documents filed by prosecutors against Dickerson. Another installment of records is anticipated to be released on or before Dec. 30, according to a public records message.
Dickerson, 52, was arrested by State Patrol troopers, who alleged he was impaired. The crash at 132nd Avenue East and 288th Street East injured an 8-year-old boy and his grandmother. A woman who was inside the SUV was seven months pregnant. All passengers from the SUV were taken to local hospital by an ambulance, according to charging documents filed Oct. 22.
Prosecutors charged Dickerson with two counts of vehicular assault DUI. He retired from the Sheriff’s Office a few days after he was charged. Dickerson has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Dec. 11.
An Internal Affairs investigation was opened to look into the conduct of the deputies who were on scene that day after court documents alleged they did not have their body cameras turned on the entire time. A sergeant is accused of manually turning off his body camera before speaking with Dickerson.
“WSP has recently completed their investigation of the DUI collision and arrest and our Internal Affairs will now be able to move forward with the secondary investigation on the conduct of the deputies,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson deputy Carly Cappetto told The News Tribune via email.
The internal investigation can now begin, Cappetto wrote. She did not have a timeframe on when the investigation will conclude, but she will provide available updates.
Sheriff Keith Swank said in a news conference that everyone who arrived at the scene should have had their cameras on.
Details from body camera footage
Body-camera footage taken by deputy Kevin Pressel shows him arriving at the crash scene at around 4:23 p.m. and speaking to another deputy. Pressel is a technical specialist assigned to the traffic unit, and prosecutors noted he kept his body-worn camera activated, according to charging documents.
The deputy explained to Pressel which direction the vehicles were traveling before the crash. There are fire trucks driving by the scene, according to the footage.
At one point Pressel asks, “He’s in his personal car, right?”
“Correct,” the other deputy said.
Pressel then asked, “Why aren’t we just treating this like a crash?”
The other deputy replies that it is vehicular assault. The footage shows Pressel saying no and the deputy stating that’s what it is.
“How? He just ran a stop sign. It’s not reckless,” Pressel said, according to the clip. He then says he’s “going to talk to him.”
The footage shows Pressel walking to Sgt. Lucas Baker, who is mentioned in charging documents. The video shows them near Dickerson’s truck, which is crashed on the side of the roadway.
Baker and Pressel have a conversation about the extent of the victims’ injuries. Baker says the injuries were not life-threatening and there was “nothing obvious.” He also said the family was not here for very long when he arrived before they were taken to the hospital.
Dickerson appears around four minutes into the footage wearing a striped orange-and-red shirt and holding a plastic water bottle. Dickerson tells Baker and Pressel that he is going to a hospital for sore ribs. At one point, Dickerson mentions how he has been driving for 37 years and had never been in a wreck before.
Baker and Pressel eventually go off near a patrol car and begin discussing impairment. Court documents show Dickerson allegedly consumed alcohol while golfing and then later at a friend’s home. A trooper spoke to Dickerson at a hospital and noted he had bloodshot eyes and could smell alcohol on him.
Documents show Dickerson declined to do field sobriety tests and said he did not feel like he was impaired. His blood-alcohol level content was allegedly 0.091 when his blood was drawn at a hospital. The legal limit in Washington is .08.
“I don’t see any signs of impairment. Did anyone say anything when they got here about possible signs of impairment?” Pressel says in the body-camera footage.
Charging documents show that Baker responded to Pressel’s question with, “I don’t have anything going on that. I’m not a subject matter expert.”
Pressel and Baker discuss possibly having Washington State Patrol come to investigate because of Dickerson’s position in the Sheriff’s Office, according to the footage. Dickerson worked at the Sheriff’s Office for nearly 25 years, and he headed up the Criminal Investigation Division at the time of the crash.
In Pressel’s body-cam video, Baker said he suggested WSP come out, but when he spoke to “Greger,” he said they can “handle it.” Court documents show that Maj. Jake Greger initially determined the Sheriff’s Office would keep the investigation.
The footage shows Pressel going into his patrol car and talking to someone over the phone. He says it appears Dickerson is not impaired, and the major simply was not paying attention to the stop sign. Pressel suggests in the footage having State Patrol come out to do a report, and, if it wants to do enforcement action, it can do it, so the deputies do not have to be put in that position.
Pressel later gets a phone call and explains what is going on before requesting a trooper come out to handle the investigation, saying they are “trying to kinda make this clean” because Dickerson was the alleged at-fault driver.
After the phone call, Pressel leaves his patrol car and goes to tell deputies and Dickerson that a State Patrol trooper is en route.
A second, shorter body-camera video taken by deputy Jordan Williams shows them leaving their patrol car at about 4:23 p.m.
“I think I just activated my camera,” Williams says.
“Have you been recording that whole thing?” another person asks.
It appears someone says, “No,” before the footage ends.
Staff writer Peter Talbot helped contribute to this report.
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 11:12 AM.
