Chad McArdle, 40, is the police chief in Boston Heights, a nice suburb of Cleveland. Chad McArdle is also in jail in Florida after being arrested there and accused of beating up a homeless man. McArdle claimed to have been dragged into a vehicle and been stabbed–and to have stabbed one of the claimed assailants with a stick–but had no injuries consistent with his quickly-changing story. But investigating officers did find someone with injuries at the locale.
During the investigation, Key West Police officers located a local homeless man lying on the ground in the alleyway nearby. He told officers he was standing in the alley when he was kicked in the back by an unknown man. The homeless man fell to the ground, and the unknown man then kicked him in the back several times.
Police walked the homeless man over to McArdle, and he positively identified McArdle as the person “who the subject attacked and battered in an alleyway for no apparent reason,” police said. The homeless man told police he wanted to press charges. Paramedics provided medical assistance to him.
The police report reiterated that they could find no evidence that proved McArdle’s statements.
It’s not clear who called 911, but the implication seems to be that McArdle did in some harebrained 2 a.m. effort to get in front of what he’d done.