Idaho jury finds man in viral police incident guilty. Officer criticized, too

BOISE – On Wednesday evening, a jury found Samson Allen guilty on charges of resisting arrest and obstructing justice during a police encounter last June that culminated in the arresting officer pressing his knee to the young Meridian man’s neck.

Videos of the incident went viral and sparked concerns over then-Meridian Police Officer Bradley Chambers’ use of force, which became subject to an internal review, the department announced in October. During the trial Wednesday, jurors considered video footage of the incident, including from police body cameras and patrol cars and videos captured by Allen’s brothers. They also heard testimony from Meridian police officers, Chambers and Allen himself.

Prosecutors argued that Allen failed to comply with Chambers’ commands on June 30, 2024, namely for Allen to remove a dirt bike from the bed of his truck for Chambers’ investigation and to step back from the truck. Allen’s attorney, Ryan Black of Boise, argued that the commands were not lawful and that Allen was not given adequate time nor the clarity needed to comply.

Jurors sided with the prosecution after just over an hour of deliberation. And while Black failed to convince jurors that Chambers acted outside of his “course and scope of his duties as a law enforcement officer,” other Meridian officers’ testimony and post-trial reflections from the judge revealed concerns about Chambers’ actions.

Officer’s actions raise red flags in review

Allen’s arrest began with a dirt-bike accident involving his younger brother, Parks, 16, who had spun out of control in a residential neighborhood on Ensenada Drive in North Meridian. While paramedics took Parks to the hospital, Allen, who was 21 at the time, and another brother, Gannon, 18, loaded the over-200-pound bike into Allen’s truck. Chambers approached the brothers, telling them, “That’s not gonna work,” according to police body-cam footage. “Take it out of the truck.”

Allen asked Chambers if he wanted to take photographs of the bike and refused to unload the bike, while Gannon filmed the encounter. Roughly one minute into the interaction, Chambers approached Allen from behind, ordered him to step back, grabbed his right wrist and eventually forced him to the ground, where Chambers pressed his knee to Allen’s neck for nearly a minute.

Though the findings of the internal review have not been released, two Meridian officers involved in the review took the stand during Allen’s trial. Sgts. Brandon Fiscus and Justin Dance said that while Chambers did not violate Meridian policy or standards, or Idaho law, his approach and failure to adequately deescalate the situation raised red flags.

Fiscus, the head of the Meridian Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards, noted that Chambers didn’t use many deescalation tactics and that the situation could’ve gone differently had Chambers better explained why he needed the bike. He also said Chambers could have waited for more officers to arrive on the scene, and he questioned why officers sometimes “want to resolve things so quickly.” He said that officers in the moment do not have the hindsight he is afforded in his reviews.

Fiscus was also concerned by the “truthfulness” of some of Chambers’ statements to his sergeant, Bryan Albers, after the incident, though he said he believed Chambers was not intending to mislead anyone but made an “excited utterance” while still energized from the interaction.

Fiscus testified that the internal review did not find any wrongdoing but that Chambers’ actions could not be considered “best practices.”

Dance, who oversees the Meridian-Nampa Joint Patrol Academy, which Chambers graduated from in 2022, also noted his concern about Chambers’ application of pressure to Allen’s neck. That is “not a technique that we teach,” he said.

Black asked Dance if he believed Chambers had made “every effort” to deescalate the situation. “I would question that,” Dance replied.

Chambers left the Meridian Police Department in September and was quickly hired by Boise. In February, Haley Williams, a Boise police spokesperson, told the Idaho Statesman in an email that Chambers was “separated” from Boise police on Jan. 17. Williams declined to say why, citing personnel matters. Chambers testified Wednesday that he is now employed as an officer in Napa County, California, where he worked before moving to Idaho.

While testifying, Chambers was presented with a training program on deescalation that he had supposedly completed with the Meridian Police Department. Black asked Chambers questions about the training, but Chambers had no recollection of it.

Judge orders probation, encourages Allen to ‘get past this’

The judge presiding over the case, Ada County Magistrate Judge Michael Lojek, sentenced Allen, now 22, to three months of unsupervised probation and entered an order withholding judgment. If Allen successfully completes his probation, he may apply to have the guilty verdict removed from his record and the case dismissed, which Lojek said he had “every expectation” would happen. Allen spent the evening of June 30 in the Ada County Jail before being released on bond, and he will not have to serve any additional jail time.

Lojek declined to order Allen to perform community service or take any behavioral class, as was advocated by the prosecutors, saying he agreed with Black that Allen has “learned (his) lesson.”

Lojek also told the courtroom he “thought it was shocking to say the least” that Chambers struggled on the witness stand to articulate his training in deescalation and that he “can imagine several scenarios” in which Chambers could have acted differently and potentially created a different outcome.

Lojek called Allen a “smart young man who was put in a difficult situation” and said he hoped Allen could “get past this” without “animosity” toward police.

“When I was 22 years old, I was arrested in the city of Boise for resisting and obstructing,” Lojek told Allen and the court.

“You’ll never forget it, but I hope that you can find some peace with it.”

Black told the Statesman by phone that Allen has the opportunity to appeal the verdict within 42 days, but that the decision would be “100% up to Samson.”

“It was a really tough result for the family, really disappointing,” Black said.