Delaware
Lawsuit targets Delaware cops for violent response to ‘ding dong ditch’ prank by teens
Trooper Walters punched the handcuffed teen in the face
The lawsuit recounts what happened early in the evening of August 21, after a 15-year-old kid kicked the door of Walters’ home while playing “ding, dong, ditch,’’ a prank where someone rings a home’s doorbell, knocks or hits the door, and runs away before someone comes to the door.
Walters, a five-year state police veteran, was on duty and not home. But his live-in girlfriend reviewed the Ring doorbell camera footage and called him to report the incident.
Walters drove there and contacted state police and the other local agencies about a fabricated home invasion, the lawsuit said.
According to the indictment of Walters, which a New Castle County grand jury handed down in September 2023, he and other officers knocked on the door of one teen’s home, “forcibly” pulled him outside, and “forced him onto the ground,’’ causing unspecified injuries.
Walters handcuffed and detained him in the back of a police vehicle. The teen was later released without being charged.
Walters began heading home, but another trooper reported that he’d found the 15-year-old teen who kicked the door and two friends. When Walters arrived at the scene, the 15-year-old was “face down on the ground’’ as the other trooper “struggled’’ to handcuff him behind his back, the indictment said.
Instead of observing, however, Walters “almost immediately’’ struck the teen “in the back of the neck/head with his knee,’’ the indictment said.
The teen was eventually handcuffed, and put in another trooper’s cruiser. While that was occurring, Walters “turned off his body-worn camera,’’ walked to the vehicle, and punched the handcuffed teen “in the right side of his face, causing an orbital fracture,’’ the indictment said. The orbital bone is commonly referred to as the eye socket.
Then, Walters walked around the vehicle and turned his camera back on. But the punch had already been documented on video because the camera continued recording, with the youth screaming in pain afterward, the indictment said.
The third teen was detained in a police vehicle for more than two hours before being released without being charged with any crime, the lawsuit said.
State police reviewed the body camera footage almost immediately, and the next day notified the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust in the office of Attorney General Kathy Jennings.
Dempsey was immediately suspended, and a month later, he was indicted.
Johnson said the lawsuit seeks to punish the cops and their agencies for harming children who were just engaged in harmless fun at the end of their summer vacation, especially the 15-year-old.
“He has both long-lasting permanent injuries, but also has had difficulty in school and has had to give up the sport that he loves playing, which is baseball. He can no longer play for his high school team.”
The victims “continue to struggle to this day. They’ve tried to move on, but unfortunately the traumatic effects of this occurrence nearly two years ago is still plaguing them.”
Thomas Jefferson University is opening a regional campus of its Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Delaware, an effort that will result in the state’s first medical school.
Jefferson beat out three other bidders to establish the four-year program in partnership with the state. The other bidders were the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, Spotlight Delaware reported.
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The inaugural class of 40 medical students will begin instruction in July 2028. Initially, the campus will be based at the University of Delaware in Newark, with Jefferson faculty providing instruction. A permanent home for the campus is still being finalized, the Inquirer reported.
The medical students will receive 18 months of preclinical training on campus before receiving clinical training from healthcare providers in Delaware’s southern counties, where the state’s physician shortage is most deeply felt. That shortage is compounded by an aging population, Delaware officials said.
“Jefferson is committed to being part of the solution to Delaware’s physician shortage,” Jefferson CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione said in a statement. “We are proud to help build a future where every Delawarean has access to the care they deserve. Jefferson is all in.”
The school’s creation is being supported by $157.4 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Delaware is one of three states without a Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program. Since the late 1960s, Jefferson and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine have reserved seats for Delaware students.
“Sidney Kimmel Medical College has trained generations of physicians for more than 200 years, more than any other medical college in the country,” Said Ibrahim, dean of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, said in a statement. “It is a privilege to bring our mission to Delaware’s patients and communities.”
Jefferson has announced several expansions recently. The university is establishing a full-time doctor of nursing practice-nurse anesthesia program and several online graduate programs at the Lehigh Valley Health Network Center for Healthcare Education in Lehigh County. It also is opening a satellite respiratory therapy lab at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown.
Delaware officials said medical students will start their classroom instruction at UD and then do their clinical training at offices and health care systems in Kent and Sussex counties, where the shortage of doctors is most acute.
However, ChristianaCare, which has its own partnership with Jefferson, is not participating. The state’s largest health care system was part of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s unsuccessful bid to operate the school. In a joint statement from ChristianaCare and PCOM, the two organizations expressed disappointment with not being part of the consortium of higher education institutions and healthcare organizations.
“The path forward raises genuine questions about whether the school’s goals can be fully realized without ChristianaCare’s meaningful participation in its clinical training mission,” it said. “The success of any four-year medical program depends not just on an academic institution, but on a true and committed partnership with its clinical partners — one built on shared mission, mutual investment and trust developed over time.”
Students in the first class can get their tuition subsidized, covering all of their education costs, in exchange for an agreement to work in rural Delaware for five years.
Running the medical school is expected to cost Jefferson $78 million over the next five years. The money is from a federal rural health grant through the Rural Health Transformation Program, which congressional Republicans created in the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
The program will give $50 billion to every state over five years, though exactly the total each will eventually receive is unclear. Half of the money is to be distributed equally to states and the other half is awarded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services based on a variety of factors.
The state applied for $1 billion late last year to improve health care in Kent and Sussex counties. The Trump administration has so far allocated Delaware $157 million. Delaware is expected to receive at least $500 million over the life of the fund.
Delaware Ohio Housing Growth
A look at the rapid expansion of housing developments in Delaware, Ohio.
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Every few weeks Delaware city approves a new housing development. The city has more than 4,000 housing units in its development pipeline, contributing to the rapid growth in one of the fastest-growing counties in Ohio.
A crash shut down U.S. 42 in Delaware County in both directions June 2.
As of 7 a.m., U.S. 42 was closed from U.S. 23 to Jegs Place near the Delaware Municipal Airport.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured in the crash or when the roadway would open.
This is a developing story and will be updated
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
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