CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- An investigation into the alleged beating of a student at the West Virginia State Police Academy is inconclusive as to how he sustained his injuries.

A review panel, commissioned by Gov. Joe Manchin, could not determine whether the blood clot Princeton Police Officer Christopher Winkler sustained happened or did not happen during the training incident where he was knocked unconscious.

The panel released its report into the alleged beating Friday.

It states that "no conclusive determination" could be made as to whether he got the blood clot from an earlier boxing session with an instructor or if the injury was "either aggravated or substantially inflicted" during baton draining.

When contacted earlier by the Gazette-Mail, Winkler and his family said two academy trainers beat him during baton training on April 5.

Winkler's mother, Pamela McPeak, said an instructor told her in the hospital after her son was injured that he saved Winkler's life by pulling two other instructors off Winkler when they continued to beat him while he was unconscious.

According to McPeak, her son was singled out by several of the training officers.

The panel interviewed nine people, including Winkler, several State Police troopers involved in the training and Princeton Police Chief William Roper. It did not interview approximately 47 other students in Winkler's class.

Ivin Lee, a member of the four-person panel and director of the state Human Rights Commission, said Friday she would not speak about the report.

"We turned the information over to the secretary [Secretary of Military Affairs and Public Safety Joe Thornton]," Lee said. "Only he or the governor would be able to report on it."

Joe DeLong, spokesman for the department, said the panel was left alone to conduct its investigation.

"They were given a task and put out there on their own to get it done," he said. "No one within the department had any contact with this panel."

The report describes two incidents where Winkler suffered blows to the head during training. The first was a boxing exercise with State Police Sgt. Rob Petry. The training instructor told the commission that he hit Winkler with "glancing blows." Winkler said he received two black eyes and a concussion and that most of the blows were to his head.

On April 5, Winkler participated in required baton training where two instructors acted as assailants. Two troopers, C.R. Holbert and J.M. Comer and Cpl. Michael McConihay from the Charleston Police Department were involved in the training.

Winkler told the commission he didn't remember everything that happened. He said that when he hit the instructors attacking him, they didn't get down on one knee as they told him they would. Winkler said they continued to attack him when he dropped his mouthpiece and when he said that he was unable to see.

The report says that other witnesses to the incident were the same as Winkler's account.

"The current established procedures for conducting this training, as explained to the Panel, do not necessarily require suspension of the training exercise upon occurrence of these events," the report states.

McPeak's claim that she was told her son was beaten after he was unconscious is not specifically addressed in the report.

According to the report, Winkler was given the code word "Timmy" to say if he needed the exercise to stop. Although his mouthpiece fell out and he said he couldn't see, he never said the word "Timmy."

"One of the facilitators should have stopped the exercise at that point until the activity could safely be resumed," the report states. "The signal to terminate was eventually given by  . . . Holbert and all participant activity ceased immediately thereafter. Unfortunately, this did not occur until after Basic Officer Winkler had collapsed."

The report concluded that the participating West Virginia State Police Academy personnel, "Generally operated within the currently established procedures for conducting the training activity in which  . . . Winkler participated."

The report also found no compelling reason to limit or eliminate the self-defense training.

It recommended reviewing the entire training curriculum for the academy, altering the structure of the Law Enforcement Training Subcommittee, which governs the academy, and altering the baton training. It also recommends videotaping the training.

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.