On Thursday, jurors heard the final four witnesses in the criminal trial of Monongalia County Sheriff’s Deputy Lance Kuretza, who is accused of depriving Quintin Graziano of his rights by using unnecessary force during a 2018 arrest at a Morgantown hotel and falsifying his report of the incident. The jury is scheduled to begin deliberations on Monday after the attorneys’ closing statements.
Assistant United States Attorney Sarah Wagner and Trial Attorney Kyle Boyton, who are representing the government in the case, began Thursday’s questioning with Sgt. Steven McRobie, who retired from the Mon Sheriff’s Office in 2021, but was working as a shift supervisor the evening of Graziano’s arrest.
Body camera footage from McRobie, who was one of five officers on scene that night, showed the sergeant entering the hotel and making his way to a room where a fight with threats of a gun had been reported – the reason for the call.
The video showed five males standing in the hallway after having been cleared out of a room by deputies Kuretza, Ethan Mongold and Isaac Coe. McRobie is seen and heard speaking with the hotel’s night manager, who explains the situation and says she wants the young men removed from the hotel. She also alerts him to a second room occupied by another male with the group.
Because the call advised there may be a gun involved, McRobie is heard asking the young men if they have a gun, to which they replied they did not. He testified he did not feel the need to frisk the young men because he realized they were drunk, and he didn’t believe they had a gun. He said he did not recall searches of any kind being conducted on the five men in the hall.
McRobie is shown on the footage briefly entering the room where Kuretza and Mongold were wrestling with Graziano. He left the room once Deputy Coe entered to assist, he said, because Sgt. J.D. Alexander was alone in the hall with the five drunk men.
He said when he entered for that brief time his impression was that Graziano was being non-compliant, and it seemed clear the officers were giving commands that Graziano was following.
McRobie was eventually called out to another scene and left. He said despite passing the deputies still struggling to control Graziano’s movements in the hallway he was unaware of the man’s injuries and did not see his face before leaving.
Sgt. Alexander, also on scene and in a supervisory position that evening, took the responsibility of collecting use of force forms on the incident to review before passing them on to the use of force trainer 1st Sgt. Kurt Thomas for review.
Alexander admitted that he should have written separate reports after speaking with all involved officers — one as a witness to the event and a second as an overview of the event according to the officers — but he blurred the two into one narrative based both on what he saw and what the officers were saying.
The sergeant said he realized he didn’t do a very good job with this case and should have recognized inconsistencies among the reports. He said MCSD policy has since been updated to require body camera footage be viewed before reports are written to ensure accuracy.
The jury also heard testimony from William Gum, a former transport officer at MCSD who was working the night Graziano was brought into the department for booking.
Gum said when he arrived at the department Graziano’s face was “pretty bloody.” He said the man’s face was swollen and he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open.
At one point, EMS was allegedly called to check Graziano, but was called off. Gum said he had concerns that Graziano had a concussion and “didn’t think it was a good decision” to call off the ambulance.
On a video in the room where Graziano was being processed, Kuretza can be heard asking Gum if the jail “would take him like that” before the possibility of an EMS refusal is brought up by Deputy Mongold. Graziano was taken to North Central Regional Jail at some point in the evening but was refused admission by nurses at the jail due to his condition. He was then taken back to the sheriff’s department.
Later in the processing room video, Gum and another transport officer are seen in the room with Graziano and begin to look closely at his head. Gum can be heard saying “This isn’t right.” He testified that blood could be seen in the man’s ears.
Shortly after, the two transport officers are seen escorting Graziano from the room. Gum said they took him outside to clean the blood and pepper spray from his face, something he had not done before or after in his two years at the department. He noted Kuretza was also present for the decontamination.
EMS was eventually called to the department and the jury heard from one of the emergency medical technicians (EMT) who responded to the call.
Camden Boggs, who worked as an EMT with Star City at the time, said a deputy in a black shirt told him Graziano “was drunk downtown starting fights and got beat up.” He could not say whether that deputy was Kuretza.
Boggs said a fight made sense because he initially saw blunt force trauma and at minimum a fracture to the nose or eye and at maximum a traumatic brain injury. He testified that Graziano’s right eye was so swollen, EMTs could not pry it open to evaluate his pupils for brain injuries.
Initially, Boggs said Graziano wanted to go to the hospital, but after being told by an unidentified deputy that by not going to the hospital he could see the magistrate sooner and go home sooner, Graziano then refused to go with the EMTs.
Defense attorney Lyle Dresbold pointed out that a narrative written by Boggs’ partner stated Graziano refused after he realized he would be shackled, but Boggs said that was not how he recalled the events.
Boggs also said the only person who could have forced Graziano to go with them that evening was the arresting officer.
The government rested after Boggs’ testimony and will call no further witnesses. Kuretza’s defense attorney Lyle Dresbold will not call any witnesses and they rested on their cross examination.
All parties will reconvene Monday for final statements from the counsel after which the jury will attempt to determine Kuretza’s guilt or innocence.
