Harry Deakins checks on his wife, Kay, in their Mercer County home. The Deakinses say State Police beat them after coming to serve a warrant on Harry.
ATHENS, W.Va. -- Kay Deakins lies on the couch in her home with a home oxygen machine at her head and a wheelchair at her feet.
ATHENS, W.Va. -- Kay Deakins lies on the couch in her home with a home oxygen machine at her head and a wheelchair at her feet.
The 63-year-old says she's been in poor health for years, since she was injured in a series of car accidents.
But in April, the State Police say she pushed, kicked and scratched state troopers as they arrested her son, Anthony, and husband, Harry. They arrested her, too -- charging her with assault on a police officer.
Kay and her family allege, in a lawsuit written and filed by her husband, Harry Deakins, 63, that a state trooper pulled her out of her wheelchair and forced her on the ground, then dragged her outside, putting a gash in her hip. The suit also claims State Police repeatedly violated Harry Deakins' civil rights, beating him while using slurs regarding his Jewish descent.
"They held the gun that close to my head," Kay Deakins said, lifting her hand out of the covers to hold fingers an inch apart. "I hate the State Police. I'm scared to death of them."
The incident wasn't the first time the family had a run-in with the department.
In February, Anthony Deakins filed a statement with the department that started an internal investigation into officers assigned to the Princeton detachment.
Anthony says he believes the family's treatment in April was a direct result of that.
"It was retaliation and revenge, I guess," he said.
"There's no guess about it," said Harry Deakins.
State Police account
According to the State Police, the family was violent toward them when they came to their home near Pipestem State Park in Mercer County, police records and criminal complaints filed in the case show.
Major J.B. Schoolcraft, deputy chief of field services, said the department can't comment on this, or any other case where there's a lawsuit filed against them.
State Police arrived at the Deakinses' home April 22. They live there with their son, Anthony, 38. Troopers were looking to arrest Harry Deakins on a warrant from Virginia accusing him of malicious wounding and destruction of property. Those charges are still pending.
According to the warrants regarding that case, which were provided by the family, Harry Deakins and his son, Sean, were confronted by Harry's daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Deakins, at the home she used to share with Sean. The two men were trying to take property from the residence, the warrants say.
After arguing with Elizabeth, Harry backed his car into her thigh, according to the warrant. Then he got out of the car and used a baseball bat on the side window of her car, causing her to be cut with glass.
According to the State Police, Harry Deakins saw the troopers arrive at his house April 22. He ran inside and barricaded himself in, according to the criminal investigation report, which was prepared by the State Police and provided by the family.
A trooper then went to the back door of the home and found the keys hanging off the doorknob. He unlocked the door and went in with his pistol drawn.
The trooper found Anthony Deakins standing with a screwdriver in his hand. The trooper ordered him to drop the screwdriver, which he did after being told to do so three times, according to the report.
But after the trooper holstered his gun, the report says, Anthony lunged at the trooper, tried to choke him and then tried to take his gun as they wrestled on the floor.
"During the time the physical altercation occurred, Mr. Deakins' parents ... began kicking [the trooper]," according to the report. The couple was then restrained by other troopers, according to the report.
Anthony Deakins was arrested and charged with malicious wounding, obstructing justice, assault on a police officer, battery on a police officer and brandishing a deadly weapon.
Harry Deakins was charged with battery on a police officer, obstruction of justice and fleeing on foot.
Kay Deakins was charged with one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of battery on a police officer and one count of assault on a police officer.
All of the charges are still pending.
Family's story
In their lawsuit, the Deakins family tells a very different tale of what happened that day.
Harry Deakins filed the suit himself -- though he is not a lawyer -- in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia at Bluefield.
Deakins said he filed it himself because when he talked to lawyers about the case, they wanted to file a personal injury lawsuit.
"It's not a personal injury case; it's a civil rights case," he said. "We're not interested in the money."
He said he's not expecting to win the case -- he knows that's probably impossible without a lawyer -- but he wants a record of what happened to him and his family.
"I'm trying to preserve this indefinitely," he said. "So when another lawyer comes to do research on another case, it's going to be there."
According to the lawsuit, the family didn't know police -- or anyone else -- was at their home April 22 until someone started trying to kick in their front door. They were worried their house was being burglarized and didn't get a response when they asked who was outside, according to the lawsuit.
A trooper then opened the back door with a crowbar, slammed Harry Deakins off the refrigerator and onto the floor and jumped on his back, according to the lawsuit.
ATHENS, W.Va. -- Kay Deakins lies on the couch in her home with a home oxygen machine at her head and a wheelchair at her feet.
The 63-year-old says she's been in poor health for years, since she was injured in a series of car accidents.
But in April, the State Police say she pushed, kicked and scratched state troopers as they arrested her son, Anthony, and husband, Harry. They arrested her, too -- charging her with assault on a police officer.
Kay and her family allege, in a lawsuit written and filed by her husband, Harry Deakins, 63, that a state trooper pulled her out of her wheelchair and forced her on the ground, then dragged her outside, putting a gash in her hip. The suit also claims State Police repeatedly violated Harry Deakins' civil rights, beating him while using slurs regarding his Jewish descent.
"They held the gun that close to my head," Kay Deakins said, lifting her hand out of the covers to hold fingers an inch apart. "I hate the State Police. I'm scared to death of them."
The incident wasn't the first time the family had a run-in with the department.
In February, Anthony Deakins filed a statement with the department that started an internal investigation into officers assigned to the Princeton detachment.
Anthony says he believes the family's treatment in April was a direct result of that.
"It was retaliation and revenge, I guess," he said.
"There's no guess about it," said Harry Deakins.
State Police account
According to the State Police, the family was violent toward them when they came to their home near Pipestem State Park in Mercer County, police records and criminal complaints filed in the case show.
Major J.B. Schoolcraft, deputy chief of field services, said the department can't comment on this, or any other case where there's a lawsuit filed against them.
State Police arrived at the Deakinses' home April 22. They live there with their son, Anthony, 38. Troopers were looking to arrest Harry Deakins on a warrant from Virginia accusing him of malicious wounding and destruction of property. Those charges are still pending.
According to the warrants regarding that case, which were provided by the family, Harry Deakins and his son, Sean, were confronted by Harry's daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Deakins, at the home she used to share with Sean. The two men were trying to take property from the residence, the warrants say.
After arguing with Elizabeth, Harry backed his car into her thigh, according to the warrant. Then he got out of the car and used a baseball bat on the side window of her car, causing her to be cut with glass.
According to the State Police, Harry Deakins saw the troopers arrive at his house April 22. He ran inside and barricaded himself in, according to the criminal investigation report, which was prepared by the State Police and provided by the family.
A trooper then went to the back door of the home and found the keys hanging off the doorknob. He unlocked the door and went in with his pistol drawn.
The trooper found Anthony Deakins standing with a screwdriver in his hand. The trooper ordered him to drop the screwdriver, which he did after being told to do so three times, according to the report.
But after the trooper holstered his gun, the report says, Anthony lunged at the trooper, tried to choke him and then tried to take his gun as they wrestled on the floor.
"During the time the physical altercation occurred, Mr. Deakins' parents ... began kicking [the trooper]," according to the report. The couple was then restrained by other troopers, according to the report.
Anthony Deakins was arrested and charged with malicious wounding, obstructing justice, assault on a police officer, battery on a police officer and brandishing a deadly weapon.
Harry Deakins was charged with battery on a police officer, obstruction of justice and fleeing on foot.
Kay Deakins was charged with one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of battery on a police officer and one count of assault on a police officer.
All of the charges are still pending.
Family's story
In their lawsuit, the Deakins family tells a very different tale of what happened that day.
Harry Deakins filed the suit himself -- though he is not a lawyer -- in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia at Bluefield.
Deakins said he filed it himself because when he talked to lawyers about the case, they wanted to file a personal injury lawsuit.
"It's not a personal injury case; it's a civil rights case," he said. "We're not interested in the money."
He said he's not expecting to win the case -- he knows that's probably impossible without a lawyer -- but he wants a record of what happened to him and his family.
"I'm trying to preserve this indefinitely," he said. "So when another lawyer comes to do research on another case, it's going to be there."
According to the lawsuit, the family didn't know police -- or anyone else -- was at their home April 22 until someone started trying to kick in their front door. They were worried their house was being burglarized and didn't get a response when they asked who was outside, according to the lawsuit.
A trooper then opened the back door with a crowbar, slammed Harry Deakins off the refrigerator and onto the floor and jumped on his back, according to the lawsuit.
Kay Deakins, who was in her wheelchair and on oxygen, witnessed the incident, according to the suit.
Another trooper then "forcefully grabbed Kay's left shoulder and ripped her out of her wheelchair and slung her into the corner of the kitchen counter," according to the lawsuit. "Mrs. Deakins' breathing tube was torn out of her nose. ... Mrs. Deakins landed on the kitchen floor onto her stomach."
A trooper then put his foot on her neck and grabbed her arms to handcuff her, according to the report.
The trooper then told Kay Deakins to, "get your whore ass off the ... floor right now!" according to the complaint.
"Mrs. Deakins advised ... 'I can't walk, that's why I'm in a wheelchair,'" according to the suit.
When Kay Deakins couldn't get up, the trooper, "became enraged and incensed at Mrs. Deakins, forcefully grabbed her handcuffs and dragged her backwards towards the back door and out onto the back porch ... [and] down the steps despite her constant pleas to stop."
The trooper then dragged her to his cruiser and slung her inside, according to the lawsuit.
Anthony Deakins says he did not reach for or try to disarm the officer, as the State Police claim.
"Basically, I was tackled after I dropped the screwdriver and on my stomach with my arms under me," he said. "That's when [a trooper] punched me in the mouth."
The troopers then took computers and cameras from the home, according to the lawsuit. Harry Deakins says they've yet to get those back.
Troopers then took all three of the Deakinses to the Princeton detachment, according to the lawsuit.
Harry Deakins said he was sprayed with pepper spray and cursed at by the trooper driving him to the detachment.
The lawsuit claims that during the car ride, an officer said to Harry Deakins, "you're a Nazi skinhead, racist Jew boy..."
Once at the detachment, two of the troopers beat Harry Deakins in the garage area, as the others watched, according to the lawsuit. They stopped long enough to turn off the surveillance cameras, according to the suit.
One trooper hit, kicked and choked Harry until he nearly passed out, according to the lawsuit.
Then another started twisting his nose until it bled on the floor, shouting Jewish slurs all along.
One of the troopers then told Harry Deakins his family needed to move out of town or he was "going to come back and burn your ... house down and kill every one of you!"
He was taken to the Princeton Community Hospital emergency room and treated for his injuries.
A photo of Harry Deakins, which he says is his mugshot from that night, shows him in a neck brace and with his face severely bruised. The mugshot provided by the West Virginia Regional Jail Authority shows Deakins in an orange jumpsuit with no visible signs of distress. He says the jumpsuit photo was taken later and replaced the photo from that night.
Internal investigation
In February, Sean Deakins was living with his father, mother and brother. His wife filed a domestic violence petition against him and came to the Deakinses' home to take back her car. State Police and sheriff's deputies parked along the road while she came to the house, the family says. Instead of just taking her car, he said she also took another vehicle that Sean had recently sold to Anthony.
Anthony contacted the State Police, who he says eventually agreed through checking the car's VIN number that the vehicle was his. But, he says, they refused to help him get it back.
It was then -- on Feb. 8 -- that he gave a statement to the Princeton detachment that resulted in the internal investigation. Anthony Deakins provided a copy of a letter from Capt. Gordon Ingold, head of the department's professional standards division, dated May 6, 2010.
"A review of the facts surrounding the incident has uncovered no chargeable actions on the part of the involved member and this case has been closed as unfounded and no further action will be taken in this matter," Ingold wrote.
Kay Deakins, who was admitted to the hospital last week after suffering a seizure, has been seeking psychological help since the April 22 incident. In an interview earlier this month she said all the State Police had to do was to identify themselves at the beginning and they would have been let in. There was no need for violence, she said.
"It's crazy," Anthony said. "One said he could shoot me between the eyes and get three days off."
The rough treatment by troopers has caused Kay to have two surgeries and multiple hospitalizations, according to the lawsuit. Medical records provided by the Deakins family show that Kay was treated for a wound on her right leg on May 21, 2010. In the medical report, it states that the visit is a follow-up to a visit from where she was injured when, according to the report, "the cops were after her son and the cops dragged her and she got a wound on her right gluteal which is draining."
Harry Deakins also provided a patient evaluation for himself from April 22. The medical record states the emergency as "alleged assault" and lists injuries to his face, neck, chest, back and shoulder.
Harry Deakins spent 84 days in jail because of the Virginia warrant. He also pleaded guilty to one count of battery and was given time served while there. He says he has no recollection of the plea deal because of his head injury.
"I don't remember any of it," he said.
Anthony and Kay Deakins also originally accepted plea deals, which were tied to one another. In the deals, Anthony entered a guilty plea without admission of guilt, thus getting the charges dropped and lowering his exposure to jail time. Kay would have pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to disarm a police officer and paid a fine. But all that fell apart when the State Police failed to return the computers, Anthony said.
Kay's trial is set for Feb. 18 in magistrate court, said Mercer County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash. Anthony's trial is set for March 8 in Mercer County Circuit Court, he said.
"I'm not guilty, so I'm not doing that," Anthony said of his original plea deal.
Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.
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