Stop sign
PHILADELPHIA – The chief of police of a Pennsylvania town is accused of road rage including calling on an officer – who was later charged with the rape of a child and committed suicide - to tase, brutalize and arrest a man riding on his electric bicycle.
Christopher Wagner filed suit against the Borough of Morton and chief of police Kenneth Lawless Aug. 25 in federal court, alleging Lawless nearly struck his e-bike and falsely blamed Wagner for running a stop sign on Aug. 19, 2025.
Lawless was off-duty at the time, though the suit says he summoned officer Francis Collier, who “at the direction of Lawless,” slammed him to the ground, deployed a taser and stood on Wagner’s back.
“Plaintiff was unarmed, was not fleeing, was not resisting, and was suspected at most of a summary traffic offense,” the suit says.
Collier’s estate is also named as a defendant. The officer was charged with the rape of a child and aggravated indecent assault of a child in February, and the following day officers found his vehicle in Lower Merion. Inside were a tactical vest and bags used to store weapons, NBC Philadelphia reported.
When they turned on their patrol car’s lights, officers heard a gunshot and fired back. Collier had suffered three gunshots to head, one of which was self-inflicted.
Wagner’s lawsuit says Collier handcuffed him and that he was held in a cell at the Morton Police Department. Citations issued to Wagner were “not supported by probable cause,” the suit says, but were to “manufacture the after-the-fact justification for the assault Plaintiff had suffered and to insulate the chief of police from accountability for his own conduct on the roadway.”
Lawless is also accused of swerving intentionally toward Wagner’s e-bike. Wagner is represented by Brian Zeiger of Levin & Zeiger.
