PHOENIX — A former Arizona Cardinals player is seeking $1 million in damages from the Cities of Phoenix and Mesa after police admitted he was not the suspect they were looking for when he was handcuffed and detained at Sky Harbor Airport in April during a homicide investigation. That, according to two notices of claim filed this week by attorney Benjamin Taylor of Taylor & Gomez.
Wesley Leasy, 53, was picking up his daughter at the airport on a Tuesday evening when police officers confronted them at gunpoint, forced them to lie on the ground, and handcuffed them. Leasy played linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals from 1995 to 1996. He runs a Scottsdale construction company and ran for state legislature in 2022.
In April, a Mesa Police Department spokesperson said there had been a shooting minutes earlier near Country Club Drive and Brown Road. At the city's Real Time Crime Center, traffic camera video near the scene showed a car that witnesses described as a white Mercedes with four doors, a sunroof, and a temporary, paper license plate.
A police helicopter followed the suspect vehicle westbound on the Loop 202 but lost sight of it near the airport. Four minutes later, Leasy's white Mercedes, which matched the description of the suspect's car, was spotted. Police at the scene told Leasy they followed him while he circled the airport awaiting his daughter.
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Leasy and his daughter were detained for less than five minutes before officers removed the handcuffs after officers at the homicide scene told them witnesses described the suspect as a white man. Police said they later arrested a suspect in the case who fit that description. The notice of claim includes a photo of the actual suspect. A Mesa police sergeant at the airport apologized to Leasy as he explained how the mix-up occurred.
"It doesn't make any sense why so much force was used here," Taylor said. "Here's a picture of the body camera, he's face down, officers there, guns blazing, it doesn't make any sense."
During the five minutes he was handcuffed, body camera video shows Leasy maintaining a composed demeanor, even trying to calm his daughter. Leasy said his calm behavior was an act of self-preservation for both himself and his daughter.
"If I make a wrong move, that it's over, I'm thinking we are both dead like that," Leasy said. "If I look the wrong way, if I make the wrong sound, if I move my finger, if they think I'm threatening, it's over."
On Tuesday, Mesa Police told ABC15 they are unable to discuss pending litigation.
You can read the full Notices of Claim below:
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