| Logan troopers sued over alleged beatings
Lawsuits filed separately by two Danville men
Two Danville men are suing the State Police over beatings in separate incidents that they say occurred in the Logan detachment while both men were handcuffed and shackled to the floor
By Andrew Clevenger
Staff Writer
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Two Danville men are suing the West Virginia State Police over beatings in separate incidents they say occurred in the Logan detachment while both men were handcuffed and shackled to the floor.
According to two lawsuits filed Wednesday by Charleston attorney Mark French, troopers detained Donald Bradley and William Ball following traffic stops on March 15 and March 22, respectively.
The lawsuits identify the troopers only by their last names. Troopers Wellman, Simmons and Williams, plus one identified as "John Doe" are accused of assaulting Bradley, while troopers Wellman, Simmons, Moore and "John Doe" are accused of beating Ball.
State Police superintendent Col. David Lemmon and the State Police also are named as defendants in both lawsuits.
"It appears as though a number of troopers stationed at the State Police detachment in Logan believe they are above the law. We disagree," French said Thursday. "We believe that the last person a citizen of this state should fear is an officer sworn to uphold the law."
John Hoyer, a lawyer for the State Police, did not immediately return a call Thursday.
The two suits are very similar. Both men allege that they were taken to the detachment following traffic stops in Mud Fork Hollow.
Once there, troopers sat them on a bench and shackled them to the floor with handcuffs and chains, according to the suits. The troopers then systematically beat Bradley and Ball using their hands, fists, knees, feet and elbows, the lawsuits contend.
The beatings left bootprint bruises on both men's backs, the suits allege.
Bradley screamed so loudly that Loretta McDonald, who was in the car and arrested at the same time, could hear him in a different part of the building, according to the suit.
Bradley maintains that Wellman pointed a weapon at him.
"Wellman stated to Mr. Bradley that if [he] sought medical attention after the beating, Mr. Bradley would be found dead in a hollow," the suit states.
After he was released, Bradley was treated at Logan Regional Medical Center, where doctors treated him for a broken nose, two fractured ribs and two black eyes, according to the suit.
The suits accuse Lemmon and the State Police of failing to adequately train, supervise and discipline members of the department regarding proper use of force and illegal, retaliatory prosecution and abuse.
Lemmon and the department knew about the practices and customs of the troopers, and "exhibited a deliberate indifference to the unreasonable risk of serious injury which [the] policy posed," the suit maintains.
The suits seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Wednesday's filings are the latest in a series of lawsuits accusing state troopers of beating prisoners, including at least one that alleges an assault at the same detachment.
In a lawsuit filed in September, a dancer at a strip club said troopers beat her and squirted pepper spray on her genitals while she was shackled in the Logan detachment.
In July, a Charleston lawyer sued the State Police over an alleged beating at the South Charleston detachment that left him hospitalized, reportedly with cranial fluid leaking from his nose.
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