Timothy Mazza displays the bruises on his ribs that he says appeared after he was kicked by Parkersburg police officers.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A gay Parkersburg man says three of the city's police officers attacked him at his home, breaking his rib and calling him homosexual slurs.
Timothy Michael Mazza, 37, says police had been questioning him about a confrontation with his neighbors and he was trying to go inside his house when the three pulled him to the ground. One of the officers then grabbed him by the neck and kicked him in the ribs, both Mazza and his partner, Kevin Swearingen, said.
"He kicked me in the ribs and he said, 'Now take that, you f--ing queer,'" Mazza said.
Mazza was then booked on two counts of assault and battery on a police officer - charges that were dismissed in magistrate court.
Mazza has filed a lawsuit in Southern District of West Virginia federal court over the allegations.
He has been off work since the alleged October beating, said lawyer John Bryan, who, along with Mike Clifford, is representing Mazza.
"Both his psychologist and his treating physician kept him off work due to his physical injuries and post-traumatic stress and depression," Bryan said.
Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell and Police Chief Joe Martin dispute Mazza's claims. Newell said that if what Mazza claims is true, he should have talked to police - not to a lawyer and the news media.
Martin said there's no investigation into the incident because Mazza never filed a complaint with the department.
"We will let it work itself out through the civil action," he said.
Martin said he did not know of the allegations of gay slurs until questioned by a Gazette-Mail reporter on Friday.
The three officers Mazza says were involved in the incident - N.R. Deuley, M.W. Eichhorn and R.L. Koher - did not respond to requests for interviews through Newell and Martin.
The mayor blames the lawsuit on what he says is West Virginia's need for tort reform.
"It is very aggravating that it is being handled this way," Newell said. "I've dealt with attorneys a lot, and they are trying to get cases settled through public pressure."
'He wanted to go inside'
On Oct. 30, Mazza said, he and Swearingen had just pulled up to their house after eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant when a neighbor four houses down yelled at them to slow down when driving through the neighborhood.
Swearingen yelled back at them, and Mazza said he walked toward them to make amends.
"After [Swearingen] responded to them, I was embarrassed," he said. "I walked up the street to apologize."
Mazza said the neighbors accepted his apology and told him someone was racing up and down the neighborhood streets in a black Ford Explorer, just like the vehicle Swearingen drove them home in.
"It wasn't us," he said. "Apparently, they thought it was."
Mazza said he left his neighbors on amicable terms and went to his back porch to smoke a cigarette. He said he'd had one margarita at the restaurant and wasn't drunk.
It was while he was on the back porch that he says a police officer entered his yard and shined a light on him.
Mazza said the officer told him he needed to ask him a few questions.
"He said, 'Did you have a fight or argument with your neighbors up the street,'" Mazza said. "I said I didn't, but my partner did."
As the first officer questioned him, Mazza said, two others showed up.
Swearingen came out of the house and onto the back porch, Mazza said, and police questioned him, as well.
The three officers questioned them about speeding around the neighborhood and about the incident with the neighbors, he said.
"They just kept asking us the same questions over and over," he said. "At that point, I'd had enough. I said, 'This is ridiculous. I'm going to ask you to leave my property. We're not under arrest and the tone of your questions is really off-color.' The way they were treating us ... they kept asking us questions and cussing."
After twice asking the officers to leave, Mazza said, he told them he was going into his house to call his attorney.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A gay Parkersburg man says three of the city's police officers attacked him at his home, breaking his rib and calling him homosexual slurs.
Timothy Michael Mazza, 37, says police had been questioning him about a confrontation with his neighbors and he was trying to go inside his house when the three pulled him to the ground. One of the officers then grabbed him by the neck and kicked him in the ribs, both Mazza and his partner, Kevin Swearingen, said.
"He kicked me in the ribs and he said, 'Now take that, you f--ing queer,'" Mazza said.
Mazza was then booked on two counts of assault and battery on a police officer - charges that were dismissed in magistrate court.
Mazza has filed a lawsuit in Southern District of West Virginia federal court over the allegations.
He has been off work since the alleged October beating, said lawyer John Bryan, who, along with Mike Clifford, is representing Mazza.
"Both his psychologist and his treating physician kept him off work due to his physical injuries and post-traumatic stress and depression," Bryan said.
Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell and Police Chief Joe Martin dispute Mazza's claims. Newell said that if what Mazza claims is true, he should have talked to police - not to a lawyer and the news media.
Martin said there's no investigation into the incident because Mazza never filed a complaint with the department.
"We will let it work itself out through the civil action," he said.
Martin said he did not know of the allegations of gay slurs until questioned by a Gazette-Mail reporter on Friday.
The three officers Mazza says were involved in the incident - N.R. Deuley, M.W. Eichhorn and R.L. Koher - did not respond to requests for interviews through Newell and Martin.
The mayor blames the lawsuit on what he says is West Virginia's need for tort reform.
"It is very aggravating that it is being handled this way," Newell said. "I've dealt with attorneys a lot, and they are trying to get cases settled through public pressure."
'He wanted to go inside'
On Oct. 30, Mazza said, he and Swearingen had just pulled up to their house after eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant when a neighbor four houses down yelled at them to slow down when driving through the neighborhood.
Swearingen yelled back at them, and Mazza said he walked toward them to make amends.
"After [Swearingen] responded to them, I was embarrassed," he said. "I walked up the street to apologize."
Mazza said the neighbors accepted his apology and told him someone was racing up and down the neighborhood streets in a black Ford Explorer, just like the vehicle Swearingen drove them home in.
"It wasn't us," he said. "Apparently, they thought it was."
Mazza said he left his neighbors on amicable terms and went to his back porch to smoke a cigarette. He said he'd had one margarita at the restaurant and wasn't drunk.
It was while he was on the back porch that he says a police officer entered his yard and shined a light on him.
Mazza said the officer told him he needed to ask him a few questions.
"He said, 'Did you have a fight or argument with your neighbors up the street,'" Mazza said. "I said I didn't, but my partner did."
As the first officer questioned him, Mazza said, two others showed up.
Swearingen came out of the house and onto the back porch, Mazza said, and police questioned him, as well.
The three officers questioned them about speeding around the neighborhood and about the incident with the neighbors, he said.
"They just kept asking us the same questions over and over," he said. "At that point, I'd had enough. I said, 'This is ridiculous. I'm going to ask you to leave my property. We're not under arrest and the tone of your questions is really off-color.' The way they were treating us ... they kept asking us questions and cussing."
After twice asking the officers to leave, Mazza said, he told them he was going into his house to call his attorney.
"That's when I reached for the door and that's when they pulled me from behind and took me half-way across the deck and slammed me to the ground," he said. "The next thing I knew, they were beating me. Someone was beating me in the head, in the sides. I'm not doing anything - I'm not resisting arrest. I was laying on the deck face down."
Mazza said an officer - whom he now believes was Eichhorn - grabbed him by the neck and kicked him in the ribs. It was Eichhorn, he says, who then called him the gay slur.
Swearingen says he witnessed what happened.
"He wanted to go inside, and they yanked him back and threw him down on the deck," Swearingen said.
Both men say the incident happened very fast, in 15 or 20 seconds.
Mazza said that as he lay on the ground, his side hurting from a broken rib, the officers were joking and laughing at him, making jokes with sexual innuendos.
"One of them said, 'Look, he's going to go for your gun,'" Mazza said.
Swearingen said that after Mazza was kicked in the ribs, police put him on his feet and took him to jail.
As they took Mazza away, Swearingen said, Mazza asked him to call his mother, which he did.
"She asked me what he was being arrested for and I told her I didn't know," Swearingen said.
Mazza was arrested and charged with the two counts of battery on a police officer - the charges that were dismissed. Before he got in the cruiser and on the ride to the station, Mazza said, he did not speak to the officers, but that they continued to insult his homosexuality.
"One said, 'What, does the cat got your tongue, faggot?'" Mazza recalled.
'Of the hate-crime variety'
According to the police report prepared by Koher, police arrived at Mazza's home in response to a call that Mazza and Swearingen had been driving recklessly in the area and had gotten into a verbal altercation with their neighbors.
Koher wrote that they found Mazza on his back porch with bloodshot eyes and smelling strongly of alcohol.
When police asked him about the altercation with his neighbors, Koher wrote that Mazza became loud and disorderly.
Police asked him to calm down and, when Mazza said he was going into his house, Koher said he wasn't done questioning him.
According to Koher's report, Mazza grabbed his uniform and when he tried to get Mazza's arms behind his back, Mazza "assumed a combative stance" and then hit Eichhorn in the face.
Koher wrote that police then took Mazza to the ground and struggled to get handcuffs on him.
According to Deuley's supplemental report, "Mazza pushed Koher about the chest. Koher attempted to calm Mazza. ... Mazza again pushed Koher. At that time Koher attempted to cuff Mazza but he refused to cooperate, tucking his arms and fell to the ground."
Martin and Newell said they will ask their insurance carriers to allow the case to go to court, rather than settle.
Martin, who became chief after the incident, said they never received a formal complaint or even a phone call about the incident before being served with the lawsuit.
"We will let it work itself out through the legal process," he said. "He can say whatever he wants to say. We're not as free to speak as they would be."
Clifford, Mazza's attorney, said he filed the lawsuit in federal court because, while the state's civil rights laws do not allow for prosecution of victims of sexual discrimination, the federal statute does to a limited degree.
"It's my personal belief that because he identified himself as a homosexual early on in the discussion, their response to that was of the hate-crime variety," Clifford said.
He said that, while it's up to others to decide whether the incident is a hate crime by federal statute, he plans to conduct the civil lawsuit as though the incident were a hate crime.
"It's very aggravating that it's getting handled this way," Newell said. "Every law enforcement agency gets sued from time to time. The only ones that make the news are when the attorneys start sending it around to reporters."
Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.
