Chad Wheeler’s girlfriend to CBS: I’m speaking out to help other domestic-violence victims
Alleah Taylor wants to get her horrifying story out far and wide, to help other victims of domestic violence.
And she wants Chad Wheeler to go to prison for what she says he did to her.
The girlfriend of former Seahawks backup offensive lineman Chad Wheeler gave an emotional interview that aired on national television Wednesday. Taylor told CBS News she remains fearful for her well-being while Wheeler remains out on $400,000 bond. He’s awaiting trial for allegedly attacking and strangling Taylor to the point she twice lost consciousness inside an apartment in Kent on a Friday night last month.
CBS This Morning’s Jericka Duncan sat down with the former girlfriend of the ex-Seahawks backup offensive tackle in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.
“She wants domestic-violence survivors to know they are not alone,” Duncan said while introducing the interview.
At the start of the 6-minute segment Taylor is wiping away tears. She is wearing a blue sling over what documents entered in King County Superior Court last month say is the left arm Wheeler allegedly broke in an attack on Taylor Jan. 22.
“I still have to get my concussion checked,” Taylor told CBS. “I have bolts and a steel plate that I am going to have forever in my arm.
“I’m going to have to...I’m going to have to deal with this for the rest of my life.”
Taylor, 27, says she and Wheeler dated for six months.
“We were like best friends,” she said. “We did everything together. I even introduced him to my family. We would babysit my nephew together.”
Taylor told CBS he first sign something was off with Wheeler Jan. 22 came when he sent a text message to her stating he had shaved his long hair. She said he’d loved his hair and had refused to cut it for as long as she’d known him.
“It surprised me and it worried me,” she said.
“As time went on throughout the day he kind of started to go downhill emotionally.”
According to court documents, the 5-foot-9, 145-pound Taylor told Kent police officers on the night of the incident she was aware Wheeler suffers from bipolar disorder “and is medicated but has not been taking his medication recently.”
She stated Wheeler had “a manic episode” the evening of Jan. 22. She said, per a Kent police report, the 6-foot-7, 310-pound offensive lineman “snapped into a dark place” and commanded her to “stand up and bow to him. When she refused, he grabbed her by the neck and threw her on the bed.”
“I told him ‘No,’” Taylor said to CBS, “and he immediately grabbed my neck. And that’s when things began. ...
“I remember looking up at him asking him to ‘Please stop, Chad. It’s me.’ And I just immediately knew, the look in his eyes, that was it.”
The Kent 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, twice.
The alleged victim reported after she came to, Wheeler was surprised she was still alive.
“Chad was standing by the bed, by the doorway, and he was just sipping his smoothie,” Taylor told CBS This Morning.
“And he was like, ‘Wow, you are still alive.’”
She ran to the bathroom, locked the door then called family, friends and 911. A Kent police 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.”
A medical examination that night found the alleged victim had a broken arm.
Her 911 call
CBS aired an excerpt from the terrified Taylor’s 911 call.
“Please help me now,” Taylor is heard saying in a whispered tone to the 911 dispatcher. “I’m gonna die.”
An arriving officer reported asking the woman if she thought she was going to die.
“I thought I already had,” she told the officer.
Taylor wrote a statement that Wendy Ross, criminal advocate supervisor with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Domestic Violence Unit, read to the King County Superior Court at a hearing in Kent this month.
“As you consider Chad’s custody status, I want you to know that I believe that as long as he is out of custody, I am not safe,” Taylor’s statement said. “When Chad attacked me, he first sat on top of me, choked me, stuffed his fingers down my throat and covered my nose and mouth with his hands. I begged him to stop. When I tried to get away, he broke and dislocated my arm. When I came to, he strangled me again, rendering me unconscious a second time.
“When I awoke a second time — covered in my own blood — he said, ‘Wow, you’re alive.’ When I locked myself in the bathroom to call the police, I could hear him speaking coolly to his father over the phone. Chad never called the police even though he thought I was dead.
“Now, Chad is out of custody staying in a hotel watching this play out on social media. This current status places my safety at risk, and I do not believe that a protective order or a condition of release is sufficient to keep me safe.”
Wheeler is represented in the case by Bellevue defense attorney Diego Vargas, who asked the court to allow Wheeler to return to his offseason home in Hawaii.
The alleged victim was particularly against that.
“My first request is that you hold Chad in custody in the King County jail and that he is not released,” the alleged victim’s statement said. “If the Court will not do this, then I ask that he be required to serve his time on closely monitored (24/7) home detention at his family home in Los Angeles. I object to him serving his time in Seattle, which places me at risk.
“I also object to him serving his time essentially on vacation in Hawaii. He and I were supposed to be on vacation together at that location. Instead, I am here, undergoing medical treatment, handling a barrage of attention and abuse on social media, and dealing with the ramifications of this horrific attack. Permitting Chad to serve his time in Hawaii under these circumstances is not acceptable.
“Thank you for taking the time to hear from me.”
King County Superior Court Judge Tanya Thorp ordered Wheeler to remain in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties while on GPS-monitored electronic home detention. Judge Thorp also kept Wheeler’s bail at $400,000, the amount set by a judge at Wheeler’s first court appearance last month.
Wheeler’s statement
Wheeler wrote on his Twitter account the day after he was released from jail on bond last month:
“Events happened over the weekend that transpired from a manic episode. I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering that I have caused ... . I apologize profusely for the turmoil that I have caused to my family, teammates, fans and those closest to me. The most important thing right now is that (the victim) gets the care she needs and I get help. Both are happening. It is time for me to walk away from football and get the help I need to never again pose a threat to another. I cannot express my sorrow or remorse enough. I am truly ashamed.”
CBS’ Duncan asked Taylor in the interview the network aired Wednesday if she believed Wheeler’s “behavior is directly tied to a mental-health issue.”
“To be honest, I don’t know,” Taylor said. “He went and ate dinner after doing this to me. And he didn’t take the same approach with the cops as he did with me.”
The Seahawks released an extraordinary statement after their former tackle’s arrest and jailing to “strongly condemn” Wheeler. They emphasized they had cut ties with him. The team let his contract expire at the end of the 2020, during which he played in five games.
“We encourage Chad to get the help he needs,” the Seahawks’ statement said, in part.
The team’s statement included urging anyone experiencing domestic assault to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or to go online to thehotline.org. All calls are free and confidential. The team noted the hotline is available all day every day in more than 170 languages.
Wheeler’s trial is scheduled to begin April 6. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree domestic violence assault, domestic violence unlawful imprisonment and resisting arrest.
First-degree domestic violence assault is a Class A felony, under Washington state law. Domestic violence unlawful imprisonment is a Class C felony. Resisting arrest is a misdemeanor.
The standard sentencing range, if the case gets to that, for first-degree domestic violence assault is 93-123 months. If the defendant is also convicted of unlawful imprisonment, the first-degree domestic violence assault standard range increases to 111-147 months. That is all according to a spokesman for the King County prosecuting attorney’s office.
So Wheeler could be facing about eight to 10 years in prison, or more, if he’s convicted.
“Beyond grateful” to be alive
Taylor appeared in court at Wheeler’s arraignment. CBS’ Duncan asked her why she wanted to be there for it.
“I didn’t want him to think that he had that power over me, that I wasn’t going to defend myself,” Taylor said.
“And I thought, how easy would that be for him and his legal team to be able to say whatever they want without having to look me in the eye.”
She says she’s “beyond grateful” to be alive.
“I really feel that God has blessed me with another chance. And I want to try to use the time that I’ve been blessed with to help other people, and to get this story out and make sure people don’t feel alone, and that this doesn’t happen again.”
CBS ended its segment with Taylor saying it reached out to Wheeler’s defense team for comment on the case and his side declined to talk about it to the network.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 6:54 AM.
