John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight
SIOUX FALLS — A former Brookings Police Department officer suspended last year for roughing up an intoxicated man at the county jail will be able to reenter law enforcement without a second psychological evaluation.
The state Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Commission voted 6-4 to suspend Damian Weets on Oct. 25, 2023. The suspension, which took effect Dec. 5 of that year, required Weets to complete remedial training on de-escalation and two psychological evaluations within 60 days of his reinstatement, with the second doubling as a fit-for-duty evaluation.
Hank Prim, South Dakota’s law enforcement training director, told the commission Wednesday that Weets completed one psychological evaluation in January. The psychologist who conducted that evaluation concluded that there was “a low probability of future violence,” Prim said, and did not recommend another evaluation.
Given the results of the first evaluation and Weets’ completion of remedial training, Prim asked if the commission would be willing to scrap the requirement for a second fit-for-duty evaluation to avoid wasting resources. The commission pays for evaluations it orders officers to undergo to prove their fitness for duty, and the evaluations cost about $5,000, Prim said.
The commission voted unanimously to waive the second evaluation. Weets plans to seek employment as an officer again, but Prim told the commission that Weets can’t begin applying until his suspension ends Dec. 5.
Weets threw a man named Esai Kaiyou against a wall after picking him up at a Brookings Walmart. Weets had argued during his October 2023 hearing that he’d been attempting to stand Kaiyou up, but the commission concluded that he’d used unnecessary force.
Weets settled a lawsuit from Kaiyou for an undisclosed sum in the run-up to his 2023 commission hearing.
The four commissioners who voted against the yearlong suspension for Weets had argued for a full revocation of his law enforcement certification.