Tag Archives: police beating

WV Deputy Arrested & Indicted by Feds – County Refused My FOIA for Body Cam

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A West Virginia Deputy has been indicted by the feds. It just hit the news a few days ago. I figured there must be body cam footage of the incident, so I sent a FOIA request to the employer. I was holding off on discussing the case until I saw the footage. I’ve now received a response, and you’re not going to like it. Here’s what we know right now. Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Lance Kuretza has been indicted in federal court for a felony civil rights violation after allegedly punching and pepper spraying a handcuffed suspect, as well as for attempting to cover-it-up by filing a false police report. 

The DOJ issued a press release. I went ahead and pulled the unsealed indictment off pacer. Unfortunately it doesn’t contain much in the way of details. I rightfully assumed there must be body cam footage. That has now been confirmed by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, who gave a media interview explaining that there was indeed body cam footage of this incident, and that it was key to their decision to indict the defendant officer. He gave some additional details that weren’t in the indictment:

“Once we saw the evidence and interviewed the witnesses we knew this case had to be charged.”

He also noted that the Monongalia County Prosecutor’s Office decided not to pursue state charges.

So, that means the body cam footage must be good – or rather, bad. In fact, he said, “The video really speaks for itself, there’s a lot of it and that’s why body cams are so important…” And if that’s the case, why did the state-level county prosecutor not file charges? That’s a rhetorical question, of course. As you’ll see, the county is now attempting to stop me from sharing this body cam footage with the public. They can give it to the feds, but not the citizens they represent.

As soon as I heard about the initial indictment, and saw the DOJ press release, I sent a FOIA request to the sheriff’s department. As of this morning, they responded, denying my request on the grounds that there’s a federal prosecution taking place. The problem is however, I didn’t FOIA the feds, but rather the county, who has decided not to prosecute. There’s an exception in our state FOIA statute where there’s still an open criminal investigation. But they don’t have one. 

What’s happening here is that the county – Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office – is attempting to prevent the public from seeing the video, even though the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the federal indictment just discussed it on the radio. Here’s more of what he said:

Deputy Kuretza and six others responded to a disturbance at the Residence Inn Jan. 20, 2018. An investigation at the scene determined none of the suspects broke laws or would be arrested, but management asked they be escorted from the property. 

As the group exited the floor, Kuretza ordered one of the guests to open the door to a nearby room where he found a man sleeping. Kuretza then allegedly began to shake the man and hit his feet to wake him up. When the guest explained he was sleeping, Kuretza threw him off the bed and beat him, investigators said. As the contact escalated, Kuretza restrained the guest as the six other officers were in the room.

“This particular victim had a flashlight in his face and thought it was his friends just messing around with him,” Ihlenfeld said. “It turned out it was a sheriff’s deputy and from there it really got out of control.”

Kuretza battered and used pepper spray on the victim while handcuffed. While the suspect was being taken out of the property Kuretza allegedly continued to use unnecessary force.

“The report that was filed after this did not indicate the pepper spray had been deployed after handcuffs were used, in fact it said pepper spray was deployed before handcuffs were used – which was not consistent with the video evidence we have.”

So I already responded to their denial of my FOIA request and am threatening to sue them for illegally denying my request. The public has a right to see this footage. The sheriff’s department can’t just suppress footage owned by the public. I will get the footage, and now I really want to see it. I pulled the actual indictment and I’ll post it up on the blog if you want to see it. Here’s what it charges: 

The indictment contains two counts. The first is deprivation of rights under color of law. This alleges that Lance Kuretza, a Deputy Sheriff with the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office, while acting under color of law, deprived the victim of his Fourth Amendment rights by engaging in an unreasonable, i.e., excessive, i.e., unnecessary and unjustified, use of force. Specifically, he punched the victim in the face, striking him, spraying him with pepper spray at a time after the victim had been handcuffed. It’s also alleged that he kneed the victim while escorting him. The indictment specifically alleges that this offense included the use of a dangerous weapon and resulted in bodily injury to the victim. Why was that last part alleged? As we’ve discussed before in these glorious cases, where those elements are present, the charge of deprivations under color of law transforms from a misdemeanor to a felony. 

Count two alleges that, the following day, on January 21, 2018, Deputy Kuretza knowingly falsified and made a false entry in a record and document with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence an investigation into his actions. Specifically, it alleges that Kuretza made false entries into a use of force report by falsely stating that he sprayed the victim with pepper spray before the victim was handcuffed, as well as by omitting that he sprayed the victim with pepper spray after the victim was handcuffed, and also omitting that he struck the victim after he was handcuffed.

If convicted, Kuretza faces up to 10 years in prison for the civil rights violation and up to 20 years in prison for falsifying the report.

There’s quite a bit of case law placing police officers on notice that it’s unreasonable excessive force to use tasers and pepper spray on handcuffed arrestees. The Fourth Amendment bars police officers from using excessive force to effectuate a seizure. Courts evaluate a claim of excessive force based on an “objective reasonableness” standard, taking into account “the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight. These are known as the Graham Factors. The Courts also look at the circumstances as of the moment force was deployed, with an eye toward the proportionality of the force in light of all the circumstances.

There’s already binding legal precedent in the Fourth Circuit, which is where West Virginia is located, that pepper spraying suspects in response to minimal, non-violent resistance is a Fourth Amendment violation. See Park v. Shiflett (4th Circ. 2001). There’s quite a bit of case law denying correctional officers qualified immunity for using pepper spray unnecessarily, for the purpose of causing pain, or for retaliation, as well as for using it excessively. 

There’s a big difference between pepper spraying an arrestee who is handcuffed and one who is not handcuffed. There’s also a difference between the use of pepper spray in a jail or prison context, and use against non-incarcerated individuals, where it’s much more likely to be considered excessive force by the Courts. Unfortunately, I can’t show you the body cam footage. But we now have confirmation that it exists. I may have to sue for it. But I’ll get it one way or the other. I’ll post the documents I have so far up on the blog at thecivilrightslawyer.com. I look forward to following this one and seeing what happens. 

Kentucky Officers Denied Qualified Immunity and Headed to Trial

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Big update in Chris Wiest’s case in Kentucky, where several Kentucky police officers are being held accountable for their misconduct. Tonight he joined me for a live video, and we discussed developments in the case, at length. This is the case where the officers denied (under oath) striking the guy they were arresting, later finding out that video footage showed otherwise. This led to Officer Thomas Czartorski later being charged with perjury.

Prior video:

Update video with the footage:

Here’s the recent court order in the case, discussed in the videos:

Police Officer Michael Amiott Fired, Rehired, Sued, and now Prosecuted Live

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There’s a jury trial in Euclid, Ohio this week where Euclid police officer, Michael Amiott is being prosecuted for a use of force incident following the 2017 traffic stop of Richard Hubbard. Amiott is charged with two counts of assault and one count of interfering with civil rights. Cell phone video showed the officer repeatedly punching Richard Hubbard after he was pulled over for an unspecified moving violation.

Hubbard was accused of resisting arrest after allegedly refusing Amiott’s orders, and the ensuing struggle resulted in Hubbard being hit multiple times while on the ground. The criminal charges against Hubbard were later dropped, and while he suffered no permanent injuries, the city later agreed to a $450,000 settlement with both him and the owner of the car he was driving.

Following a 45-day suspension, Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail fired Amiott from the police force, but an independent arbitrator reinstated him a year later. Nevertheless, Amiott was arrested and charged in Euclid Municipal Court in August of 2019 following further investigation, and his trial was subsequently delayed two years by COVID-19.

The entire trial has been live streamed on Youtube by WKYC and some of the testimony has been interesting. This is what we’re dealing with by the way, in the mission to obtain some accountability where citizens are violently victimized by the government.

Also, this isn’t his only excessive force incident:

Former Logan PD Officer Sentenced to 9 Years for Civil Rights Violations

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About 7 months ago, I posted a video about a West Virginia police officer, Everette Maynard, formerly of the Logan, WV Police Department who was found guilty by a federal jury of violating an arrestee’s civil rights by using excessive force. This was caught on video. This is the one where the officer was caught by a surveillance camera flipping the bird to the camera. 

Today I talked to one of the investigators involved with that prosecution and thought I would give you an update video about what ended up happening to Officer Maynard. The DOJ recently issued another press release on the case, announcing that former-Officer Everette Maynard has been sentenced to 9 years of prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release due to his conviction of violating an arrestee’s civil rights by using excessive force against him.

In the video I posted late last year, I showed you the actual photos presented to the jury during the trial, and I went over the actual jury instructions used in that case. Here’s the video:

This is a rare case of a police officer being held accountable in the most important way. He received almost a decade in prison for his actions. The U.S. Department of Justice had this to say about the sentencing of Maynard: 

“This defendant’s abuse of law enforcement authority inside a police station was egregious and caused serious injuries,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Police misconduct undermines community trust in law enforcement, and impedes effective policing. This sentence confirms that law enforcement officers who use excessive force against arrestees will be held accountable.”

Title 18, United States Code, Section 242 makes it a crime to deprive any person of his civil rights under color of law.  For a jury to find the defendant guilty, the federal prosecutors must prove each of the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt at trial:

1. The defendant acted under color of law;

2. The defendant deprived the victim of a right secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States – here, the right of an arrestee to be free from unreasonable seizures, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer; 

3. The defendant acted willfully; and

4. The defendant’s acts resulted in bodily injury to the arrestee. 

(NOTE: elements 1 and 2 are by themselves a misdemeanor; when elements 3 and 4 are present, it rises to the level of a felony.)

On Nov. 17, 2021, a federal jury convicted Maynard of using excessive force against an arrestee while Maynard was a police officer with the Logan Police Department in West Virginia. At trial, the jury heard evidence that Maynard assaulted the victim in the bathroom of the Logan Police Department before dragging him into an adjoining room, hauling him across the room, and ramming his head against a doorframe.

The assault initially rendered the victim unconscious and left him with a broken shoulder, a broken nose, and a cut to his head that required staples to close. While the defendant assaulted the victim, the defendant berated the victim for “making demands” of him by, among other things, asking to go to the bathroom. After the assault left the victim unconscious in a pool of his own blood, the defendant bragged about his use of force.

It’s important to note that, in this actual case, the jury was instructed that a police officer “may not use force merely because an arrestee questions an officer’s authority, insults the officer, uses profanity, or otherwise engages in verbal provocation – unless the force was otherwise objectively reasonable at the time it was used. Additionally, the jurors were instructed that an officer may not use force solely to punish, retaliate against, or seek retribution against another person. 

These sorts of unnecessary uses of violent force against arrestees, if true, can never be reasonable. 

How did the jurors know that it happened this way? Because it was captured on video, which is by-far the most important tool available to us for constitutional accountability. The police certainly like to use video evidence against the public in their prosecutions. But they don’t like it when it happens to them. In this case however, I’m told that it was actually a law enforcement officer who originally blew the whistle on this guy to federal investigators. Good for that individual. There needs to be more of this. And I have reason to believe that there will be more of this in West Virginia. 

Mount Hope WV Officer Part 2 – Breaks a Kid’s Jaw and Abandons Him in Someone Else’s Cruiser

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You may have seen the video posted last week about Mount Hope, WV, police department officer Aaron Shrewsbury. Since the video was posted, I’ve received a lot of information from the public, including from other police officers. That’s always an indication, in my experience and opinion, that there’s a real problem there. I was told today by credible sources that Officer Shrewsbury has now been suspended with pay. I have not received verification of this as of yet, however. As you will see below, his supervisor / Chief of Police, had already signed off on the use of force I’m about to discuss, so hopefully he’s not in charge of the internal investigation…. In the video about what happened to Mr. Beckett, I mentioned that kid from Ohio who had his own encounter with Officer Shrewsbury last year. Let me tell you more. 

On August 15, 2021, several police agencies responded to a 911 call from Ace Adventures Complex, a vacation and white water rafting facility located in Minden, Fayette County, West Virginia. There was a verbal altercation that took place at the complex. 20 year old Nathan Nelson, from Ohio, had been visiting his sister, who worked at Ace Adventures Complex. At some point they became involved in some sort of altercation or argument involving multiple other individuals.

Several police agencies arrived, including Officer Shrewsbury from the Mount Hope Police Department. Marijuana was found in the car belonging to Nathan and his sister. Officer Shrewsbury arrested Nathan and placed him in handcuffs. 

According to Shrewsbury’s subsequent police report, he handcuffed Nathan and escorted him to a police cruiser. While standing beside the cruiser, nathan allegedly became angry and asked, “why he was fu&cking being arrested.” Shrewsbury then asked him to stop swearing, and then advised him he was being arrested for disorderly conduct and possession of a controlled substance. Nathan responded, “this was fucking bullshit,” to which Shrewsbury responded, “yeah it is,” and that, “I wasn’t knowledgeable about how things were done in Ohio where he was from, but in West Virginia, possessing marijuana and other illegal and dangerous drugs, using profanity in public and fighting in the streets definitely are all illegal here.” 

Shrewsbury then wrote in his report that, “I turned away from the male subject briefly to get an Oak Hill officers’ attention to unlock the police vehicle, so I could place the male subject safely inside of it,” but that “As I turned back to the male subject, he turned his head toward me and pursed his lips while making a noise as if he were clearing his throat of flem and filling his mouth with it and sputum. He then moved his head towards me in a motion that made me believe that he was going to spit on me. Observing this, I then rapidly used a straight arm with an open palm to divert the male subject’s head away from me, making physical contact with the left side of his head and facial area. The maneuver was abrupt, but did not cause him to fall to the ground.

By all means, review the pertinent portions of Officer Shrewsbury’s report for yourself:

After the strike to Nathan’s face, Shrewsbury then placed Nathan, still handcuffed, in the rear of the Oak Hill police cruiser, essentially abandoning him there for the Oak Hill officers to find.

Ultimately, Nathan was only charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Nathan maintains that he wasn’t resisting Shrewsbury in any way. And contrary to what Officer Shrewsbury wrote in his police report, Nathan maintains that it went down a little differently. Nathan says that he was told by Shrewsbury, “if you don’t shut up, I’m gonna take these handcuffs off and do one of those old West Virginia ass whoopins.” After apparently not liking Nathan’s response, Nathan states that Officer Shrewsbury, who started to walk away, quickly turned around and punched him in the face with a close fist right hook, with Nathan still handcuffed and not physically resisting in any way.

I discussed in the previous video about Officer Shrewsbury that he had been decertified as a police officer while working at the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office in 2015, for lying and dishonesty as a police officer. The next year, Shrewsbury ran for the position of Magistrate Judge in Fayette County, touting his law enforcement experience – not mentioning his decertification – and also bragging that he was a professional boxer.

Excerpt, Fayette Magistrate Division 2 and 3 Candidates, May 8, 2016, The Register-Herald, https://www.register-herald.com/news/fayette-magistrate-division-2-and-3-candidates/article_ef029a2c-fd78-5bed-9473-88b362722a2c.html

A review of old social media also reveals at least one past boxing photo of Officer Shrewsbury.

The physical trauma inflicted to Nathan corroborates that, and corroborates Nathan’s recollection of being punched with a closed-fist right hook, rather than the word salad written by Officer Shrewsbury.

Nathan was discovered by other police officers, sitting in the back of a police cruiser, covered with blood, with his tooth laying in his lap, his shirt covered with blood, suffering in severe pain. These other officers took Nathan into their custody and transported him to a nearby hospital, where he underwent emergency treatment. Nathan’s jaw was broken in two different places. He was going to require immediate surgery. He ended up being transported all the way back to Ohio to a specialist surgeon at Ohio State University, for the necessary surgery on his jaw. 

Excerpts of Nathan’s medical records from Plateau Medical Center Emergency Room:

So you have a 20 year old kid, handcuffed, charged only with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, punched in the face by a police officer claiming to have experience as a professional boxer, knocking out at least one tooth, and fracturing his jaw in two places, requiring transport by ambulance, all the way to Ohio for surgery, where he spent four days hospitalized.

One of the police officers from the nearby Oak Hill Police Department who discovered Nathan injured and bleeding in the back of the police cruiser, and who transported him to the emergency room of the nearby hospital, noted in her report that she didn’t even know who had arrested and handcuffed Nathan, even identifying the design of the handcuffs she removed from him at the hospital. 

Excerpt of the police report by OHPD Officer Kennedy.

Another Oak Hill officer noted in his report that he was “made aware that an officer had punched the male” [arrestee] and placed him in into the other Oak Hill officer’s car, basically abandoning him there with no information or documentation.

Excerpt of the police report by OHPD Officer Jones.

Laughably, in his subsequent written police report, Officer Shrewsbury filled out a use of force report that contained almost no information about the force that he used, or the reason for using it. Mind you, I don’t believe his report even alleged that Nathan spit at him, just that he allegedly heard sounds that he alleges were leading up to a spit. Importantly, Nathan wasn’t charged with spitting, or attempting to spit on any police officer. 

Officer Shrewsbury’s Use of Force Report, dated August 16, 2021, which was even signed by his supervisor, the Chief of Police, Jack Brown.

Police use of force incidents are judged by the federal courts using the Graham Factors, which are going to easily show that this was an unreasonable and excessive use of force. Here you have an individual charged with an extremely minor crime, who is handcuffed, who is not physically resisting, but rather only running his mouth, expressing criticism, who is punched in the face with tremendous force, by a large police officer who claims to be a boxer. 

While that police officer claims he heard pre-spit sounds, that same police officer has already been decertified for lying as a police officer. Thus, it’s probably for the best if Officer Shrewsbury is suspended. All of this begs the question about why the town of Mount Hope, West Virginia hired him in the first place, and why they appear to have let him escape real supervision. 

Make sure you subscribe and follow-along to hear what’s happening next, because we’re learning more by the day, and lawsuits are looming.

Small Town Cops Exposed on Video and Held Accountable in Court

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The small town police department in Westover, West Virginia was recently exposed for their corruption and misconduct. Take a look at this dash cam video featuring two police officers who won the town a 1.1 million dollar settlement in two lawsuits, including the brutal use of force captured in this disgraceful body cam footage.

Here’s the text of the lawsuit itself, with all of the allegations:

But there’s more…. Accusations of corruption surfaced, which is shocking, I know.

The over 90-minute meeting that involved former Westover Police Chief Rick Panico, Lt. John Morgan, Westover city attorney Tim Stranko and Westover City Councilman Steve Andryzcik took place in September 2020. The meeting came on the heels of Panico’s resignation and the release of a letter signed by 11 Westover Police officers calling for the removal of Officer Aaron Dalton for a number of abuses of power….

The conversation during the meeting was mostly focused on the conduct of Mayor Johnson and his relationship with Officer Aaron Dalton. Pancio and Morgan described concerns that Mayor Johnson subverted the chain of command within the police department and created an environment that made it impossible to hold Dalton accountable for his actions.

Dalton is facing multiple lawsuits over civil rights violations and more accusations came to light in the meeting, including claims that Dalton had sexual intercourse with a woman while on duty and later was harassing her. Pancio claimed in the meeting that Mayor Johnson told him to “make it go away.”

This reminds me of the time I spent in Parkersburg, West Virginia years ago, where the mayor held an excessive force planning meeting with all the local police officers, resulting in at least one blowing the whistle on him….

Brooke County Man Arrested in his Yard for Cursing – Lawsuit Incoming

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Brooke County, West Virginia Sheriff’s Department deputies were called out to a neighbor’s complaint about dogs getting out of their yard. When they approached and talked to the dog’s owner, on private property, they were asked to leave. Some swear words were utilized by the dog’s owner. The cops then protect and serve the man, as shown and described in the video.

The body cam footage features Brooke County Deputy Niles Cline (not Crane, lol). The other deputy, Shane Logston’s body cam footage didn’t survive, because the “battery was dead.” The criminal charges were dismissed with prejudice through the assistance of Attorney Alex Risovich, who in turn brought the case to me. We will now seek justice through a civil lawsuit in federal court, for the violation of this man’s federally protected civil rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1983.

Lackluster’s video on the same incident:

Police Officer Fired and Charged with Perjury after Deposition

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Remember my video with Kentucky Lawyer Chris Wiest about his excessive force lawsuit involving the Kentucky State Police back in March? One of the police officers involved was fired and charged with perjury after he was caught lying in the deposition in Chris’ civil lawsuit.

A former Kentucky State trooper has been criminally charged with perjury after denying under oath that he beat a man with a flashlight in April 2020.

Thomas Czartorski was named in a lawsuit alleging troopers used excessive force against Alex Hornback of Shepherdsville while executing a bench warrant. The lawsuit also alleged that Hornback’s parents recorded the officers beating him, and that a trooper deleted the footage. But a home security video captured the incident. A lieutenant with the Kentucky State Police accused Czartorski in a complaint filed Thursday of lying during a January deposition when he said he didn’t use any force during the arrest. Czartorski turned himself in Friday afternoon at the courthouse on a felony charge of first-degree perjury, according to his attorney, Josh Schneider. The charge carries a penalty of one to five years in prison.

https://kycir.org/2021/07/09/this-former-ky-trooper-denied-using-force-under-oath-the-video-says-he-did/

Here’s a video I uploaded yesterday on it – Freedom is Scary Ep. 67: