Why Seahawks haven’t cut Chad Wheeler, damning police report details, where case goes next
The Seahawks haven’t cut Chad Wheeler already because they don’t have to.
The reserve offensive tackle’s contract ended with the end of 2020 season. The three-year NFL veteran can be a restricted free agent in March. But Seattle almost certainly will not tender him a contract offer and will instead send him away as an unrestricted free agent.
Still, a clear, unequivocal denunciation of Wheeler for his alleged actions with his girlfriend last weekend would work right now.
The Seahawks have said nothing more than Monday night’s statement that they were aware of Wheeler’s jailing following his arrest on felony domestic-violence charges from an alleged incident with his girlfriend in an apartment in Kent Friday night, and that the team was still gathering information.
Yes, there are legal proceedings to play out. Wheeler was released from the King County Jail Tuesday on $400,000 bond. The King County prosecutor’s office was expecting to file felony domestic-violence assault charges against him Wednesday afternoon. An arraignment hearing would be next, likely within 10-14 days. The team doesn’t want to supersede that process.
Yet the incident report that prompted the probable cause to charge and jail Wheeler is damning enough for unequivocal condemnation.
King County court records provided to The News Tribune include an incident report from the Kent Police Department. Its officers responded at 9:46 p.m. Friday to a call from an alleged victim police describe as a woman 5 feet 9, 145 pounds. The person initially reporting the incident said the woman texted him that she was locked in a bathroom following a physical fight with her boyfriend, Wheeler. The police report states that on a subsequent call to 911 the alleged victim was “breathing heavily” and told the 911 operator “she was being killed.”
The woman stated she had a dislocated arm and was bleeding from her nose. Arriving police officers reported hearing a woman’s screams from inside the apartment’s locked bathroom. The officers forced their way into the bathroom. They found the woman inside it, with Wheeler standing behind her. The alleged victim’s face “was covered in blood and her left arm was limp against her body. She was crying in pain,” the police report states.
The report states Wheeler “did not comply with officers’ commands and resisted” detainment.
The report states during his eventual detention by officers in the apartment Wheeler “was yelling ‘Sorry!’ repeatedly and heard crying out ‘I don’t beat women!’ ” The report says Wheeler refused to speak to officers.
The woman was transported to Valley Medical Center in Renton. While there, she told officers she and Wheeler had been dating for about six months. The alleged victim stated she was aware Wheeler suffers from bipolar disorder “and is medicated but has not been taking his medication recently.” The woman stated Wheeler had “a manic episode” Friday evening. She told police the 6-foot-7, 310-pound offensive lineman commanded her to “stand up and bow to him. When she refused, he grabbed her by the neck and threw her on the bed.”
The police report states Wheeler “strangled (her) with both his hands for some time.” The report states Wheeler then took one hand and “crushed it against (the woman’s) nose and mouth trying to stop her from breathing as he continued to strangle her with his other hand.” The woman reported Wheeler held her down on the bed and caused her lose consciousness.
The woman reported that after she regained consciousness she saw Wheeler standing near the bed. She told police Wheeler said to her “Wow, you’re alive?”
The alleged victim reported that’s when she ran to the bathroom, locked the door and called family, friends and 911. The report states Wheeler eventually picked the lock on the bathroom door and began “apologizing profusely.” Officers arrived shortly after that. An officer took photographs of the woman and noted her neck had “noticeable” finger marks on it and that her left elbow was “obviously swollen and deformed compared to her right arm.”
An arriving officer reported asking the woman if she thought she was going to die.
“I thought I already had,” she told the officer.
Wheeler, who turned 27 last week, was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic-violence assault. He was booked into King County Jail at 1:19 a.m. Saturday. The King County prosecuting attorney’s office asked a King County District Court judge to hold Wheeler on bail of $500,000. Judge Joe Campagna set Wheeler’s bail at $400,000. The judge issued a no-contact order for Wheeler with the alleged victim through March 8, according to King County District Court records.
Wheeler is not required nor expected to attend a probable-cause hearing and basis for a filing decision from the King County prosecutor’s office Wednesday afternoon. He will be required to attend his expected arraignment within two weeks. By then, the case will be moved to King County Superior Court because it involves a felony charge.
Also by then, Wheeler almost assuredly will have played his last game for the Seahawks—and perhaps in the NFL.
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 10:57 AM.
