A Charleston attorney filed a lawsuit against the State Police in Kanawha Circuit Court on Monday, alleging that he was brutally beaten by troopers while handcuffed and in custody.
A Charleston attorney filed a lawsuit against the State Police in Kanawha Circuit Court on Monday, alleging that he was brutally beaten by troopers while handcuffed and in custody.
In the suit, Roger Wolfe maintains that Troopers Paul A. Green and Jason S. Crane beat him in the South Charleston barracks following his arrest on DUI charges shortly after midnight on June 17, 2007.
Wolfe, a senior labor and employment lawyer with Jackson Kelly, was hospitalized following the incident. Wolfe's attorney, Ben Bailey, told the Gazette that his client was beaten so badly while in police custody that cranial fluid leaked from his nose.
According to the suit, Wolfe was seated in the booking office with his hands cuffed behind his back when Trooper Kristy L. Layne became irritated by the fact that he was smiling.
"Layne asked Mr. Wolfe what he was smiling about. When Mr. Wolfe did not respond, ... Layne left her desk and told Mr. Wolfe that she would take the smile off of his face," the suit reads.
Layne allegedly shook Wolfe and shoved him back in his chair. She then had a brief conversation with Green, who had entered the booking office, according to the suit.
Green then took Wolfe into an empty adjoining room, where he and Crane beat him until he began to bleed "profusely" from his head and nose, the suit contends. Another officer later had to clean up the blood with a mop, the suit maintains.
"Green exited the room and threatened the detainees sitting in the booking office by asking them if anyone else wanted to be a smart ass, he could also take them into the adjoining room," the suit states.
None of the barracks' surveillance cameras were working that night, and had not been working for several months, and the troopers and State Police officials knew about it, the suit maintains.
Green, Crane and Layne are named as defendants in the suit, as is State Police Sgt. J.K. Rapp and State Police Superintendent Col. D.L. Lemmon.
Wolfe's suit expands upon an earlier suit against emergency room doctor Jason A. Tackett. That suit maintained that Tackett conspired with the police by allowing Rapp to question Wolfe before he received treatment after he was admitted to Thomas Memorial Hospital at 1:13 a.m.
Tackett is also named as a defendant in Monday's suit.
"Rapp undertook these efforts in an attempt to cover up the assault and battery of Mr. Wolfe and further deprive him of his civil rights," the suit reads.
Rapp took handwritten notes, which included his questions and Wolfe's answers, which he had Wolfe initial. A copy of Rapp's notes was attached to the first lawsuit.
"Do you remember going to the WVSP South Charleston office?" Rapp asked.
No, Wolfe answered.
A Charleston attorney filed a lawsuit against the State Police in Kanawha Circuit Court on Monday, alleging that he was brutally beaten by troopers while handcuffed and in custody.
In the suit, Roger Wolfe maintains that Troopers Paul A. Green and Jason S. Crane beat him in the South Charleston barracks following his arrest on DUI charges shortly after midnight on June 17, 2007.
Wolfe, a senior labor and employment lawyer with Jackson Kelly, was hospitalized following the incident. Wolfe's attorney, Ben Bailey, told the Gazette that his client was beaten so badly while in police custody that cranial fluid leaked from his nose.
According to the suit, Wolfe was seated in the booking office with his hands cuffed behind his back when Trooper Kristy L. Layne became irritated by the fact that he was smiling.
"Layne asked Mr. Wolfe what he was smiling about. When Mr. Wolfe did not respond, ... Layne left her desk and told Mr. Wolfe that she would take the smile off of his face," the suit reads.
Layne allegedly shook Wolfe and shoved him back in his chair. She then had a brief conversation with Green, who had entered the booking office, according to the suit.
Green then took Wolfe into an empty adjoining room, where he and Crane beat him until he began to bleed "profusely" from his head and nose, the suit contends. Another officer later had to clean up the blood with a mop, the suit maintains.
"Green exited the room and threatened the detainees sitting in the booking office by asking them if anyone else wanted to be a smart ass, he could also take them into the adjoining room," the suit states.
None of the barracks' surveillance cameras were working that night, and had not been working for several months, and the troopers and State Police officials knew about it, the suit maintains.
Green, Crane and Layne are named as defendants in the suit, as is State Police Sgt. J.K. Rapp and State Police Superintendent Col. D.L. Lemmon.
Wolfe's suit expands upon an earlier suit against emergency room doctor Jason A. Tackett. That suit maintained that Tackett conspired with the police by allowing Rapp to question Wolfe before he received treatment after he was admitted to Thomas Memorial Hospital at 1:13 a.m.
Tackett is also named as a defendant in Monday's suit.
"Rapp undertook these efforts in an attempt to cover up the assault and battery of Mr. Wolfe and further deprive him of his civil rights," the suit reads.
Rapp took handwritten notes, which included his questions and Wolfe's answers, which he had Wolfe initial. A copy of Rapp's notes was attached to the first lawsuit.
"Do you remember going to the WVSP South Charleston office?" Rapp asked.
No, Wolfe answered.
"Do you remember speaking to a female trooper?"
"Yes, she got in my face," Wolfe replied.
"When you [were] speaking with the female trooper, do you remember trying to kiss her?"
"No, I was giving her a bunch of [expletive], and she got in my face. That's all," Wolfe reportedly answered.
"How did you get the knot on your head?"
"I don't know, one of your guys did it," Wolfe said.
Rapp then asked Wolfe if he felt like he had been treated fairly by the troopers that night.
"Yes, I do. They have a tough job," is the answer Rapp recorded.
At the end of his notes, Rapp indicated that no statements regarding the abuse had been made to hospital staff.
He also noted the time in the upper right-hand corner: 2:10 a.m., almost an hour after Wolfe had been admitted.
Wolfe later had no memory of the conversation with Rapp, the suit maintains.
Wolfe later spent almost a week in the hospital after his own doctor recognized that his injuries were potentially life-threatening, the suit contends.
Lemmon and Rapp "developed and maintained policies and customs exhibiting a deliberate indifference to the rights of persons in West Virginia," according to the suit.
The suit, filed by Bailey, seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 348-1723.
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