WHEELING — Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department 1st Sgt. Kurt Thomas spent nearly five hours on the stand Tuesday explaining use-of-force training deputies receive.
He also answered questions from attorneys about when, where, how and what type of force is appropriate for law enforcement officers, as well as the procedures for reporting incidents when force is used during an arrest.
That was the majority of testimony in the second day of the trial of Monongalia County Deputy Lance Kuretza, which is taking place in federal court in Wheeling.
Kuretza was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2022 for allegedly violating the fourth amendment rights of Quintin Graciano by using excessive force during an incident at a Morgantown hotel Jan. 20, 2018, when police were called for an altercation inside a room, then falsifying the report of the incident.
Kuretza is alleged to have used excessive force on Graciano by punching and elbowing him in the face and, after he was handcuffed, striking him in the face and using pepper spray and kneeing him while he
was being escorted.
As the use-of-force trainer for the department, Thomas was also tasked with reviewing use-of-force reports and body cam footage submitted by officers, including the report submitted by Kuretza the night of Graciano’s arrest.
Thomas testified that upon reviewing the use-of-force report filed by Kuretza, he had concerns about the way Graciano appeared in the photos. Those concerns made him want to find out the reason for Graciano’s facial injuries and what had gone on during the arrest.
“I’ve never reviewed any as many times as I had this one,” Thomas said in reference to the body cam footage provided as part of the use-of-force report.
Because the body cam footage from the hotel room where deputies began their interaction was dark and difficult to see, Thomas said he could not determine what happened despite trying to view the footage on several different devices, so he relied heavily on the written officer statements before signing off on the use of force during Graciano’s arrest.
After learning of an investigation into the incident, Thomas watched the footage again and said he believed he could see what appeared to be knee strikes to Graciano’s head after he was placed in handcuffs.
“We have never trained knee striking to the head,” he said of MCSD policy, adding that a knee strike to the head is “a big no-no.”
He said he also now believes that Graciano had been pepper sprayed after the cuffs were on because coughing and gagging could be heard from those in the room. Later in his testimony, he said he never actually saw the pepper spray canister in the video or heard the blast, but based his conclusion of when the pepper spray was deployed on when the coughing began.
When pepper spray is deployed, Thomas explained, the suspect needs to be decontaminated, or cleaned up, as soon as it is practical. In Graciano’s case, Thomas said he thought it should have happened at the hotel or by EMS once at the police car.
Thomas said he would not have signed off on the use of force if he had known Graciano did not receive decontamination for over an hour after being sprayed. He said he only signed off on Graciano not receiving medical care because the victim had allegedly refused it.
Cross examination of Thomas by Kuretza’s defense attorney Lyle Dresbold focused, in-part, on Thomas’ responsibility to review use-of-force reports to check for inconsistencies and to follow-up with officers to amend or review them as needed.
Despite saying he noticed some inconsistencies in reports and only receiving body cam footage from two of the five officers on the scene, Thomas admitted he did not ask any follow-up questions before signing off on the report.
Testimony in the trial, which began Monday in the U.S. District Courthouse in Wheeling, continues this week and will likely conclude early next week.
