View full sizeSeveral off-duty Wilson Borough police officers were present during a brawl last December at Shruty's Pub in Wilson Borough, a law suit says. The brawl has sparked a Northampton County lawsuit.Three Wilson Borough police officers have been identified in court filings as the off-duty officers who were at
the night four people claim they were assaulted.
The recent court filings also indicate there was surveillance video of Dec. 6, 2009, from inside and outside the Northampton Street bar, but the video was recorded over.
The filings state officers Christian Meehan, Scott Trethaway and Marc Crisafulli were at the bar that night, but the filings do not specifically indicate which, if any, of the officers participated in the alleged assault. Their attorney denies there was any wrongdoing.
Jeremy Alves, of the 2300 block of Forest Street, Wilson Borough; Scott and Lori Kocher, of the 2300 block of Birch Street, also in the borough; and Chad Ulmer, of the 500 block of East Fourth Street, Bethlehem, claim their civil rights were violated in the incident.
View full sizeSteven ParkanskyWhen the suit was initially filed, the off-duty officers were identified only as John Doe.
Attorney Chad Klasna, who represents the defendants, said it is his practice not to discuss the specifics of a case that is currently, or might soon be, in litigation.
The plaintiffs' attorney, Jennifer Sletvold, did not return a phone message seeking comment.
The lawsuit does not provide details of the alleged assault, but court paperwork says one of the plaintiffs claims they were choked by an off-duty police officer and suffered injuries in the attack.
The plaintiffs reported the alleged assaults to Wilson Borough Police Department the same night, and Patrolmen James Otto and Stephen Homoki, both were on-duty, later spoke with the group at the Kochers' home, according to court papers.
At some point, the group also filed a compliant with Parkansky. Parkansky said at the time that the department was investigating an incident with three borough officers but did not elaborate on the incident and declined to release their identities.
Parkansky filed a 22-page report on his investigation and two pages were included in the recent court filings.
The report indicates Parkansky spoke to Scott Kocher on Dec. 14, 2009, and eventually reviewed the surveillance video, but sometime after his review the video was recorded over and is now lost.
Parkansky created a video timeline, but Klasna said he would not provide the timeline referenced in filings "or any other documents, as I believe that would be inappropriate."
As part of his investigation, Parkansky wrote in his report, he also reviewed the audio log of the incident from Northampton County control center.
After reviewing the log, Parkansky wrote, he contacted Otto to ask "why the incident was not completed properly" and asked Homoki why there was no supplemental report. He also asked both officers why he was not contacted.
Klasna said the court filings only include excerpted portions of the police report.