Bradford Area High School Resource Officer Hiel “Butch” Bartlett is being sued by the family of an emotional support student for allegedly using excessive force in a classroom, deploying pepper spray and cuffing the student for alleged non-compliance with a teacher.
The 17-year-old male is identified only with the initials T.K., and is a current resident of Johnstown. Messages sent to the family’s attorney, Alex Barker of Pittsburgh, for comment were not immediately returned.
Bartlett, who is a member of the Bradford City Police Department, referred questions to police chief Chris Lucco. Bartlett’s attorney, John Kwasneski of Pittsburgh, did not immediately return a message left seeking comment.
Lucco said he never received a formal complaint from the student’s family in regards to the actions of the officer.
“City of Bradford policy is not to comment on pending litigation,” the chief said. “However, I did speak to a member of the family at length, and advised him how to file a formal complaint. Because I felt that a complaint would be filed, I did initiate an investigation.
“After speaking to school administration and staff, the officer’s conduct and use of force was determined to be in line with the police department’s use-of-force policy,” Lucco said.
The policy, he said, was reviewed and approved by the city’s insurance company, solicitor and city council. It is a model policy in use across the country, he added.
“In today’s society, it’s not necessarily an officer’s actions in question, but the perception of those actions,” Lucco said.
The suit alleges that on March 14, 2014, the student was in his life skills/emotional support class at the high school sitting with his head down on the desk. He ignored the request from the teacher to sit up and do his work. The teacher asked if he was OK, “because she knew that T.K. sometimes becomes upset or experiences anxiety and needs time away from the rest of the class,” the suit read.
He did not tell the teacher he was anxious, and she again asked him to do his work. He said he would not. The teacher asked the dean of students to speak with him; the dean asked her to send T.K. to the hallway to speak to him. T.K. “refused to leave his desk,” so the dean entered the classroom and tried to convince T.K. to follow him to the office, the lawsuit read.
The student refused to comply, so the dean asked him if he was OK. The student refused to move, so the dean asked the teacher to move the other students to another room, the suit read.
The suit alleges the teacher returned to the room and Bartlett entered at that time. Yet according to a response filed by Bartlett’s attorney, the officer waited in the hall “while the dean and teacher tried to calm the situation. At some point, voices became raised and T.K. got aggressive so defendant Bartlett entered the room as it no longer appeared to be a safety issue, but, instead, was turning into a police issue,” the response read.
Both documents agree the student was growing more agitated and Bartlett was advising him to calm down. The student’s fist was raised during the incident as well, both documents agreed.
“Defendant Bartlett, following police protocol, pulled out his pepper spray and told T.K. that he would count to three before using it unless T.K. cooperated, got out of his seat and went into the hallway,” the response read.
T.K. replied, “Don’t f—ing spray me with that,” the suit read.
As Bartlett counted to three, the teacher and dean continued asking the student to calm down and go with them to the office, the suit read. When Bartlett got to three, he sprayed the student with pepper spray, “pulled T.K. from his desk and pushed him to the floor, where he held T.K. down for 30 to 40 seconds,” the suit read. The student was handcuffed while on the floor, and taken to Bartlett’s office in the school.
Bartlett’s response read, “In order to maintain control of the situation and protect the safety of other individuals, defendant Bartlett followed proper procedure in placing T.K. on the floor and restraining him so that he would not be a threat to any other persons. All of this was according to police protocol and proper procedure.”
The student’s suit alleges Bartlett failed to properly decontaminate the child, which is denied in Bartlett’s response. “During the time of the decontamination, T.K. was not handcuffed and after decontamination at the school, was taken to the home of his mother who was in a position to provide further decontamination.”
After the student was taken home, Bartlett retrieved his coat from where it had been left in the school and searched it for “any dangerous or sharp objects which T.K. might use to harm others,” the response reads. A can of smokeless tobacco was found.
The student’s suit claimed there was no cause to search the coat.
The suit is claiming excessive force, false arrest, malicious prosecution, assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress and is asking for both compensatory and punitive damages.
In Bartlett’s response, the attorney said the complaint fails to state a claim on which relief can be granted; is barred from continuing because of the statute of limitations; Bartlett was acting in his official capacity and in accordance with the department’s and school’s protocols; and that Bartlett’s actions were “reasonable and based on a good faith belief that plaintiff, T.K., posed a danger to both himself and other individuals.”
Both parties in the case have agreed to mediation before attorney David White in Pittsburgh, with a mediation date to be scheduled during the week of June 22.
