LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Body camera video of a man being repeatedly tased while a Kentucky State Police trooper shouts commands at him is at the center of a new federal lawsuit.
Dawson Blevins is the man in the video being tased.
A Kentucky State Police trooper indicted in March for allegedly assaulting multiple people and committing perjury is now facing a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a construction worker he is accused of macing and repeatedly tasing without reason.
“I couldn’t move. It just drew me up. And then all I could see was static, like on a TV,” Blevins told WDRB News in an interview Tuesday afternoon.
The incident last year started when another man was pulled over in Hardin County. Blevins was a passenger in the vehicle. The driver told Trooper James Cameron Wright there may be a roach of marijuana in the car. Wright then asked Blevins to get out of the car. He refused until Wright told him he now had probable cause to search the vehicle. When he got out of the car, the situation escalated.
“Hey, don’t reach for anything. You understand that? Drop what you got in your hands,” Wright said.
“No, I’m video taping this,” Blevins said.
“You’re under arrest,” Wright said.
“For what,” Blevins asked.
“Get on the ground you’re under arrest,” Wright said.
Wright then tased Blevins for the first time.
“And even though Mr. Blevins was giving his hands up to the trooper behind his back, he chose to get violent,” Garry Adams, Blevins’ attorney, said Tuesday.
The tasing continued as Wright shouted at Blevins to put his hands behind his back. Blevins kept responding that he couldn’t.
“He’s giving commands he knows cannot be complied with because he is literally incapacitating my client,” said Adams.
As a result of the incident, Blevins was charged with having meth and drug paraphernalia, among other charges. Those charges were later dismissed.
In the police report, Wright said Blevins was "combative" and ignored his commands. Blevins explains his upper back was fractured from the encounter.
“So that’s why I was screaming, ‘I can’t. I can't,'" he said. "I can't get my hands behind my back. I got them as far as I could."
After the tasing, Blevins was then sprayed with OC spray.
Kentucky State Police Trooper James Cameron Wright
“And it appeared as though he was doing it, to essentially torture him,” Adams said.
The lawsuit cites earlier instances of Wright using excessive force, while later being named Trooper of the Year in 2021. Wright was indicted in March of 2025 for allegedly assaulting multiple people and committing perjury. He is currently suspended at KSP.
Despite the repeated tasing, Blevins said the encounter doesn’t taint his view of police as a whole.
“No, because like I felt immediate relief when that other cop showed up,” he said. “I felt like I was in danger the whole time until the second state police cop got there.”
Kentucky State Police said it has not yet been served with this lawsuit, but said “KSP is committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, and morals in service to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
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