Bodycam: Tased and sprayed, suspected meth dealer won’t quit

BANGOR TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Toby Farley wasn’t going quietly.

The Bangor Township man, a parole violator and suspected meth dealer, took a deputy on a nine-minute odyssey through woods and water last week in Van Buren County.

The pursuit happened Aug. 21 west of Bangor.

By the time it was over, Farley, 46, had been shocked with a Taser, pepper sprayed and held at gunpoint.

But even that didn’t stop him.

“This is a prime example … of what our deputies deal with (routinely),” said Van Buren County Sheriff Dan Abbott, who released body camera video of the pursuit to Target 8. “They put their lives on the line so people can live in a safe community, and seeing this video is a gut check to the public to see exactly what our deputies do on a regular basis.”

Farley has a history of running from police.

Michigan State Police confirmed that in 2006, Farley wrestled a Taser from a trooper and the trooper shot him.

But even a gunshot wound and the prison stint that followed failed to convince Farley to change his ways, according to Abbott.

Released from the Michigan Department of Corrections in September 2022, the MDOC said Farley violated parole twice for failing to report.

Abbott said Farley was also wanted for dealing methamphetamine.

A week before the pursuit, deputies executed a search warrant on Farley’s home in Bangor Township, but Farley wasn’t there.

Abbott said deputies had been keeping an eye out for Farley, and on Aug. 21, it paid off.

“One of our deputies was driving by, was familiar with him, seen him out in the yard. Kept driving so he wouldn’t pick up that he seen him. The deputies did a nice job of formulating a plan to put him into custody based on the guy’s history. They figured he was going to run and do exactly what he did.”

Instead of confronting Farley right away, a second deputy, Eric Calhoun, positioned himself in the woods behind the home.

As predicted, when the first deputy pulled into the driveway, the parole absconder took off running into the woods.

In the bodycam video, you can see Calhoun chasing Farley before deploying his Taser.

Farley grabbed at the device, knocking it to the ground.

The suspect also wielded a 4-foot stick or pole, and it appeared he may have been preparing to use it.

It was at that point that Calhoun drew his gun, and Farley once again took off.

“It wasn’t until (Farley) squared back up that our deputy ended up pulling out his firearm so he wouldn’t get hit in the head or be disabled by this stick that he was carrying….After (the deputy) knew it wasn’t a threat anymore, he transitioned back on the use of force continuum, putting his gun back in the holster.”

After reholstering his gun, Calhoun retrieved the Taser from the ground and picked up yet another tool: pepper spray.

“Get on the (expletive) ground,” demanded Calhoun as he followed Farley farther into the woods.

“Get on the ground. I’m going to pepper spray you,” Calhoun announced before spraying Farley in the face.

But the suspect kept running, ultimately traipsing through a swamp with Calhoun on his tail.

“Now you’re going to catch more charges, Toby,” said Calhoun, sloshing through the swamp. “Let me put you in handcuffs, son.”

Nine minutes after the chase started, the deputy made physical contact with Farley and wrestled him into handcuffs.

No one was injured in the chase.

“Law enforcement in general, nationwide, at times are under attack,” said Abbott, explaining why he wanted to share video of the recent pursuit. “You get one bad apple, and they try to lump us all into that, which is not fair to our profession. I can tell you, we’ve got a heck of an office with a lot of professionals, and that right there is just another prime example where they put their life on the line. That whole incident, as you see from the video, could have gone a different direction. Fortunately, it didn’t.”

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