"I've heard complaints from blacks and from whites, really," Hamm said. "But ... these are allegations until otherwise proven."

Montgomery Police Chief Pete A. Lopez also declined to talk about what happened, saying he didn't want to interfere with an investigation into the incident by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

"I didn't feel I had to oversee these officers any more than any other officers," Lopez said of Leavitt and Hutchinson. "Just because someone puts on a uniform doesn't make them right all the time."

Earlier this week, another woman said Leavitt was called to her home to break up a fight between her husband and another man in September 2007.

Lakisha White said Leavitt jumped on her husband's back and Maced him when her husband turned his back on the officer. White said she was Maced too, and Leavitt grabbed her by the back of the neck, injuring her spine.

"It took [Twan Reynolds] getting hurt that bad to get anything done about it," she said at the meeting Thursday.

Leavitt said last week that he was under the impression that White's husband, Roderick White, was under the influence of crack cocaine during the September 2007 incident. A house near where the incident occurred is a known crack house, Leavitt said at the time.

"Anybody who knows us knows we don't do drugs," Lakisha White said. "[Roderick White] hasn't drank in months. It was absolutely ludicrous for him to say that."

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com

MONTGOMERY, W.Va. -- The state Human Rights Commission held a meeting Thursday in Montgomery, but it didn't have anything to do with allegations that led to one officer being suspended and another fired, said Ivin Lee, the commission's executive director.

The meeting was one of many Lee said she schedules around the state to let people know what the commission does and how it works.

Before the meeting, Lee said that the commission had two formal complaints open in Montgomery, one against the police.

The Human Rights Commission takes complaints of all types of discrimination and investigates them, Lee said. The commission gets between 1,500 and 2,000 complaints a year, she said. Of those, between 450 and 600 become working case investigations.

"You get so many where people get fired and are angry," Lee said. "Many people get the forms but don't follow through."

Last month, Twan Reynolds and his wife, Lauren, accused Patrolman Matthew Leavitt and Patrolman Shawn Hutchinson of repeatedly hitting Twan Reynolds over the head with a blackjack, kicking him in the back and spraying his eyes with Mace at close range. They filed a lawsuit in Kanawha County Circuit Court last week.

The couple also said Leavitt repeatedly used a racial epithet against Twan Reynolds, who is black, and Lauren Reynolds accused Leavitt of licking her on the neck during an interrogation and saying, "Little whore, you like it like that."

Thursday's meeting was held at the old Montgomery High School building, which now serves as the Living Waters Church. The church's pastor is Terrance Hamm, Twan Reynolds' brother.

Hamm, also a Montgomery city councilman, declined to talk about what happened to his brother. He did say he had heard complaints about the two officers before.

"I've heard complaints from blacks and from whites, really," Hamm said. "But ... these are allegations until otherwise proven."

Montgomery Police Chief Pete A. Lopez also declined to talk about what happened, saying he didn't want to interfere with an investigation into the incident by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

"I didn't feel I had to oversee these officers any more than any other officers," Lopez said of Leavitt and Hutchinson. "Just because someone puts on a uniform doesn't make them right all the time."

Earlier this week, another woman said Leavitt was called to her home to break up a fight between her husband and another man in September 2007.

Lakisha White said Leavitt jumped on her husband's back and Maced him when her husband turned his back on the officer. White said she was Maced too, and Leavitt grabbed her by the back of the neck, injuring her spine.

"It took [Twan Reynolds] getting hurt that bad to get anything done about it," she said at the meeting Thursday.

Leavitt said last week that he was under the impression that White's husband, Roderick White, was under the influence of crack cocaine during the September 2007 incident. A house near where the incident occurred is a known crack house, Leavitt said at the time.

"Anybody who knows us knows we don't do drugs," Lakisha White said. "[Roderick White] hasn't drank in months. It was absolutely ludicrous for him to say that."

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com