Man arrested over Hells Angels T-shirt wins hearing

Edmonton, Canada (October 29, 2018) BTN — A man arrested by security guards at West Edmonton Mall for refusing to remove a Hells Angels support T-shirt has won a hearing with the province’s law enforcement review board.

Paul Sussman claims Edmonton police officers who responded to his 2016 arrest did not take his complaint about the security guards’ conduct seriously, and that he was given the runaround when he later attempted to file a formal complaint.

The Alberta Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB) dismissed the police service’s attempt to have the complaint thrown out as frivolous and vexatious, and took the rare step of awarding Sussman $750 in costs before the matter goes to a full hearing.

Sussman was shopping with his teenage son at the mall on Aug. 28, 2016, when he was approached by mall security for wearing a Hells Angels “support T-shirt.”

Sussman was told to remove the shirt or leave because gang support paraphernalia is against mall policy. He was told if he did not leave he would be removed for trespassing.

Sussman refused because he believed the request was unlawful, the decision states. When security attempted to arrest him, he allegedly became “belligerent and aggressive” and resisted by linking arms with his son to avoid being handcuffed.

Security eventually took him to the ground, arrested him and took him to the mall security office. Two police officers arrived to deal with the case, though no charges were laid in the case.

The officers drove the man and his son to their car. During the ride, Sussman said he wanted to file an assault complaint against the guards but the officers “did not give him the form and did not take his complaint seriously” and told him instead to visit the west division police station.

Sussman went to the station the next day and told an officer at the front desk that he wanted to lay a complaint against mall security. According to the complaint, Sussman was wearing the same shirt and alleged the officer “refused” to help him.

“The appellant (Sussman) was of the opinion that it was because of his shirt,” the decision states. Instead, the west division officer told him to call the police complaint line. When he did, he was told to contact one of the officers who responded to the mall complaint.

Around a year later, Sussman filed formal complaints with city police, claiming the two mall officers and the west division officer failed to properly investigate his complaint. Police Chief Rod Knecht ordered investigations into the complaints but found there was no reasonable likelihood the officers would be convicted of misconduct.

The officer working at west division, however, was given a warning about “providing good customer service to citizens trying to report matters to the front counter.”

Sussman appealed the complaint to the LERB in April. Knecht and the police service sought to have it dismissed as “frivolous and vexatious” but the board disagreed.

The board also ordered each officer to pay Sussman $250, saying costs were warranted because their submissions failed to establish the complaint was made in bad faith and “attacked the appellant unnecessarily and on a personal level.”

The complaint will go to a hearing before the LERB, though no hearing dates have been set. The board hears appeals from both citizens and police officers outside of internal police complaints systems.

SOURCE: Edmonton Journal 

Pittsburgh Mayor defends drunken cops who started fight with Pagans MC members

Pittsburgh, PA (October 27, 2018) BTN — Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto on Friday pushed back against Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala’s characterization of the city police investigation of a brawl between undercover officers and members of the Pagans motorcycle club.

Kopy's Bar in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

Mr. Peduto called Mr. Zappala’s statement that he had problems with police management “disappointing” and “unfortunate,” and said he had not yet decided whether the undercover detectives used appropriate force when they fought with four Pagans in Kopy’s Bar on the South Side on Oct. 12.

Related |Pagans MC: Bar owner says cops would not leave MC members alone

Related |Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops 

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

“What I saw is troubling, with the actions of escalation of force that didn’t seem to be warranted, but without full evidence of what actually happened, it’s very difficult to make that judgmental call,” Mr. Peduto said. “And a district attorney’s role is to investigate first, then comment; not comment and then do an investigation.”

Mr. Zappala said Thursday that Pittsburgh police initially turned over only a small part of the video evidence  in the case, and that his office did not receive the rest for more than a week. Mr. Peduto said Mr. Zappala received all the evidence he wanted within 48 hours of the request.

“I can understand why he would want information immediately, but some of that had to be obtained by our officers, such as the cameras, the video, and then compiled to be able to give that to him,” Mr. Peduto said. “I think 48 hours is a fair amount of time.”

But Mr. Zappala’s spokesman, Mike Manko, said Friday it took far longer than 48 hours. The DA’s office requested the evidence Oct. 18 and received it Wednesday -- a day after the office was forced to postpone a scheduled preliminary hearings for the Pagans. Additionally, Mr. Manko said, body camera footage was delivered late Thursday afternoon.

“These requests are memorialized in dated emails,” Mr. Manko said.

Mr. Peduto also said Kopy’s Bar was frequented by motorcycle gangs and that area is “suspected of being a major trafficking area of illegal drugs.”

Mr. Manko said police evidence does not support that characterization of the bar, and an attorney for the bar, George R. Farneth II, said Friday it’s simply not true.

“We categorically deny that allegation and would encourage the mayor to come forward with all the evidence he has to support such an allegation,” Mr. Farneth said. “Short of doing that, this is a veiled attempt to cover for a police department for his city that in a lot of respects is out of control, as evidenced by these police officers.”

Mr. Farneth said the bar has not been cited by the Liquor Control Board or has needed to call police for more than a decade. Mr. Farneth said Kopy’s Bar is not frequented by bikers.

“If you go on a regular day of the week, any day of the week, the chances of a biker being in the bar are slim to none,” he said. “It’s locals, everyday common folk.”

Six members of the Pagans motorcycle club were there Oct. 12., and four left in handcuffs. Frank Deluca, Erik Heitzenrater, Bruce Thomas and Michael Zokaites each face several felony charges as a result of the fight, which their attorneys contend was started by intoxicated undercover detectives.

Detectives Brian Burgunder, David Honick, Brian Martin and David Lincoln had been drinking in the bar from 7:33 p.m. until the fight about 12:40 p.m., surveillance video shows.

Police officers are prohibited from drinking alcohol while on duty, but Mayor Peduto said Friday there is an unwritten understanding that undercover officers can drink while on the job to maintain their covers.

“That being said...someone would be expected while doing undercover work to be able to consume while still being able to properly respond,” he said. “And not being in a situation where the intoxication level would jeopardize themselves or other officers. That’s what we’re looking at right now. There isn’t a policy in place, it’s a common sense call.”

Attorneys for the men arrested say each of the undercover detectives drank between 13 and 19 drinks, many on the rocks, before the fight broke out.

The mayor said he’s asked Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert and Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich to create an alcohol policy for undercover officers by looking at how other cities handle the matter.

Mr. Farneth on Friday called on police to be more transparent and said they should release body camera footage from uniformed officers who responded to the fight to resolve any lingering questions about how the incident and subsequent investigation were handled.

The affidavit in the case, written by Detective Burgunder, was not finished and filed in City Court, Downtown, until 1 p.m. Oct. 12 -- nearly 12 hours after the fight. The document was approved by the District Attorney’s office about 11 a.m.

That timeline appears to violate Pittsburgh police policy, which typically requires officers to finish reports before the end of their shifts. Defendants cannot be arraigned or processed at the jail until the police affidavit is filed. Court records show the Pagans were arraigned about 6:40 p.m. Oct. 12.

Pittsburgh police spokesman Chris Togneri would not say Friday whether Detective Burgunder was granted permission to wait to file the paperwork. Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizen Police Review Board, said Friday the end-of-shift policy helps ensure that officers can accurately recall what happened.”

“I think it’s inappropriate that it was filed so late and I believe it’s also contrary to the policy expectation that the report be completed prior to the end of shift, and with the rare exception and with a supervisor's approval,” she said.

SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Pagans MC: Bar owner says cops would not leave MC members alone

Pittsburgh, PA (October 26, 2018) BTN — A notarized statement from Kopy’s bar owner who tended bar the night four Pagan motorcycle club members fought with several heavy drinking undercover cops appears to challenge how Pittsburgh police have described the fight.

The attorney for one of the Pagan's members charged in the fight contends the police officers were drunk and started the fight because the cops didn’t like how the motorcycle club members were dressed.

Related |Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops 

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

“Our position is that my client was not engaged in any criminal activity, was not the subject of an investigation, but rather was the subject of drunk police officers who didn’t like the way they were dressed,” said Lee Rothman, the attorney for Frank Deluca, who faces charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy and riot along with three others of the Pagan motorcycle club.

Security footage from inside the bar also shows one undercover officer punching Deluca in the head at least a dozen times. The fight occurred about 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 12 at the South Side bar. Four Pagans fought with several undercover Pittsburgh police officers who were at the bar investigating a drug complaint, authorities have said.

Public Safety spokesman Chris Togneri said the department cannot comment on ongoing investigations, though investigators are reviewing all video footage. The incident is being reviewed by the Office of Municipal Investigations and the Citizens Police Review Board.

A court affidavit from Stephen Kopy indicates that the undercover officers came in about 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 and identified themselves as construction workers. They ordered alcoholic drinks, Kopy wrote. The Pagans came in about 11:30 p.m. and sat at the opposite end of the bar.

“On several occasions, the undercover officers called me over and made statements indicating that they had an issue with the bikers at the other side of the bar,” Kopy wrote. “Each time I discouraged them from taking action.”

Twice before the fight, one of the officers spoke to the Pagans, but Kopy was not certain what was said, he wrote in the affidavit. Shortly before 12:30 a.m. Oct. 12, one officer identified himself as an undercover officer and told Kopy “he liked me and did not want to see anything happen to my bar,” according to the affidavit.

Kopy wrote that the officer said the bikers were dangerous. When he asked for clarification, the officer said the bikers were “staring and pointing at them,” according to the affidavit. He wrote that he did not see the bikers staring or pointing.

One officer asked Kopy what he and the bikers had spoken about, Kopy wrote, and wanted to know if he was associated with the Pagans.

“I was then asked by one of the undercover officers whether I was ‘siding’ with the bikers,” Kopy wrote in the affidavit. “I told them that I was not ‘siding’ with the bikers. I just did not agree with the undercover officers that the bikers were trying to cause trouble.”

Kopy wrote that as the bikers got up to leave, the officers stopped them and began talking to them. He said he called 911 when one of the officers and one of the Pagans began arguing. Uniformed officers arrived, and Kopy wrote that he was hit with pepper spray.

Video from the bar shows a conversation between the undercover police and Pagans beginning cordially. It shows Deluca shaking the hands of two of the officers. Rothman said the incident escalated with officers who “were highly intoxicated and agitated because members of a motorcycle club came in dressed a certain way.”

Rothman contends that the video shows the officers drinking for hours beforehand. He said he counted one who “had four Jack Daniels on the rocks – full glasses – within one hour and never stopped drinking.”

Deluca pushed one of the undercover officers, sparking an all-out brawl. Uniformed officers arrive on scene, called by the undercover officers because they’d been outted as cops, according to the criminal complaint filed against the Pagans.

Deluca, Michael Zokaites, Bruce Thomas and Erik Heitzenrater have been charged in connection to the fight. A preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday was continued until Nov. 6.

The footage shows one officer holding Deluca against the bar while an undercover detective punches him repeatedly in the face. Rothman said Deluca has damage to his orbital bone and elbow and, as a union electrician, is now unable to work.

Kopy’s affidavit also covered the aftermath of the brawl.

Some time later, two of the undercover officers returned to the bar with three or four uniformed officers, a lieutenant and a detective, he wrote.

Kopy wrote that the lieutenant asked if the bikers were regulars, to which he replied they were not. He said the lieutenant asked why he let them into the bar wearing their Pagan club jackets, and Kopy told them he had no reason not to let them in.

The lieutenant asked why Kopy did not have a dress code for his bar, and he responded that he never needed one.

“The lieutenant then stated that ‘this was my fault for letting them in with jackets,’” Kopy wrote. “I responded that the bikers did not cause the fight and the lieutenant then began screaming to me about the bikers being dangerous and referenced that they had gun and that someone could have been shot or killed.”

That would have led to the bar being shut down, Kopy said the lieutenant told him, and he would have to “live with a dead customer on my conscience,” according to the affidavit.

Later, two of the undercover officers asked Kopy if he’d outed them as cops to the bikers, according to the affidavit. Kopy told them he’d been unaware they were law enforcement until just before the fight.

One week later, a city detective came to remove the security camera hard drive and make a copy, Kopy wrote. Kopy had also provided copies to attorneys for the bikers and the Pittsburgh Police Citizens Review Board after they requested them.

The detective told Kopy that during the process the data was lost and the security system would not work.

“Upon stating that the data might be lost, I informed that the (review board) and the bikers’ defense attorney had copies to which (the detective) sounded surprised to hear such news,” Kopy wrote.

Kopy’s affidavit was signed Monday, Oct. 22, along with a notary.

SOURCE: TRIB Live

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