Delaware officer who kicked black suspect in head resigns, gets $230,000
DOVER, Del. — To Kentrell Sewell, it was barely worth notice that Thomas Webster IV had resignedfrom the Dover Police Department.
Webster, a Dover police corporal, was acquitted of a felony assault charge late last year after a police dashcam captured him kicking a black man in the head during a 2013 arrest.
"He didn't take responsibility. No jail, no nothing," Sewell said Wednesday while seated for a trim at a downtown Dover barbershop. "Now, if it's not going to happen in Dover, he's just gonna kick somebody somewhere else."
Sewell's reaction to Webster's resignation signifies the lingering distrust still simmering in Dover after the August 2013 encounter between Webster and Lateef Dickerson, whose jaw was fractured by the kick.
Webster, indicted by a second grand jury after a first declined to issue charges, faced trial in late 2015. After being found not guilty of felony assault, he returned to the department's payroll while on administrative leave, even as community activists and African-American leaders urged the city to fire him.
Late Tuesday, Dover announced Webster would separate from the force by June 30. His day-to-day work for the department is over immediately and a settlement agreement between Webster and the city says he "shall not enter the Dover Police Department building or communicate with the City of Dover or its representatives."
He remains on administrative leave until his separation.
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