Lake Havasu City Lawsuit: Settlement, Charges, and Officers

Lake Havasu City, Arizona, agreed in October 2025 to pay $140,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the family of David Adams, a young man with intellectual and developmental disabilities who was tasered repeatedly during a 2023 arrest. The city and the individual officers denied liability, and the case was dismissed with prejudice on November 17, 2025.¹²

What the Officers Did

On June 6, 2023, Lake Havasu City police responded to an apartment after one of David Adams’s siblings called to have him removed following an argument over a blanket. Adams, then in his mid-twenties, has intellectual and developmental disabilities; his mother has described him as “severely disabled as far as learning.”³

According to the family’s filings, officers entered without a warrant. Body-camera footage captured at least one officer using an R-word slur before the arrest and describing the brothers as “all like special needs.” The officers moved to arrest Adams for misdemeanor disorderly conduct. A physical struggle lasted about seven minutes, and the sound of a Taser activating was recorded at least seven times on the video.¹

Hospital records documented 20 to 30 visible red wounds on Adams’s torso and leg. He was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which damaged muscle tissue breaks down and releases its contents into the bloodstream, which can cause kidney failure.³⁴

What the Lawsuit Alleged

The family first filed a notice of claim against the city in October 2023, seeking an $8.5 million settlement.³ When no agreement was reached, attorney Sean Woods of Mills+Woods Law filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on June 7, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The case, Adams et al. v. Lake Havasu, City of (3:24-cv-08112), was assigned to Judge Michael T. Liburdi.⁵

The lawsuit named the city and the responding officers as defendants. It alleged excessive force, failure to intervene, gross negligence, battery, and infliction of emotional distress. Three family members were listed as plaintiffs: Noah Adams, David Hezekiah Adams, and Rebekah Adams.⁵ Woods argued that because officers knew about Adams’s developmental disability before entering the apartment, a “hands-off” or “take a report” approach would have been appropriate rather than a physical arrest.¹

Terms of the Settlement

The parties reached agreement at a settlement conference on September 12, 2025, and signed the deal in October 2025.² The key terms:

Lake Havasu City agreed to pay $140,000, divided among the three family members.
The city and the individual officers denied any liability or wrongdoing.
As a condition of the settlement, the Adams family agreed to acknowledge that “no discrimination occurred.”¹

On November 17, 2025, Judge Liburdi granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case with prejudice, with each side bearing its own fees and costs. The case was terminated that day.²

The Criminal Charges Against Adams

Adams was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, assault, and resisting arrest. In a January 2024 bench trial before Lake Havasu Municipal Judge Mitchell Kalauli, he was convicted of assault and disorderly conduct. In a separate jury trial that same month, he was acquitted of resisting arrest.⁶ The acquittal on the resisting charge became a significant piece of the family’s civil case, cutting against any argument that Adams had physically resisted officers during the arrest.

What Happened to the Officers

The Lake Havasu City Police Department’s internal affairs investigation found “no violations of the use of force policy” and concluded the force used was not “disproportionate to the task.” The department did find that officers violated its Standards of Conduct policy by using profane and derogatory language about Adams and his family. Officers involved received a Letter of Counseling for the language, and a supervisor received a separate Letter of Counseling for failing to ensure that photographs were taken after the use-of-force incident.⁷

The full internal investigation was submitted to the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, which took no action. One named officer, Joshua Condra, later resigned. The department said his resignation was “unrelated to the Adams incident,” and he reportedly went on to work for another law enforcement agency. No public policy changes resulting from the Adams case have been reported.⁷

1
ABC15. Lake Havasu City Settles Lawsuit Claiming Excessive Tasering of Man With Disabilities
2
PACER Monitor. Adams et al v. Lake Havasu, City of et al
3
ABC15. Legal Claim: Lake Havasu City Police Excessively Tasered Man With Disabilities
4
National Center for Biotechnology Information. TASER Use and Rhabdomyolysis
5
CourtListener. Adams v. Lake Havasu, City Of
6
Today’s News-Herald. Havasu Man Sentenced Amid Police Excessive Force Lawsuit
7
ABC15. AZ Officers Use Slur, Profanity Before Arresting Man With Special Needs