PITTSBURGH (AP) — A western
Pennsylvania police officer who was fired after he refused a random drug test
last year has been convicted of beating a handcuffed prisoner in a holding cell
and then trying to cover it up.
Walter R. Johnson, 38, of
Oakdale, was convicted at a non-jury trial of simple assault and official
oppression — the cover-up charge. An Allegheny County judge on Monday also
sentenced him to two years' probation and two weeks in jail, though Johnson
doesn't have to serve that time until January. Johnson's defense attorney,
James Wymard, didn't immediately return a call for comment and the officer
doesn't have a listed home telephone.
Johnson was a patrolman in
Avalon, a tiny borough near Pittsburgh, when he threw the prisoner, 49-year-old
Robert Szilagyi, into a holding cell wall so hard the man's jaw was broken and
his teeth loosened — including one later found lodged in his airway. Avalon
police alerted Allegheny County detectives after they learned surveillance
video of the April 2012 beating existed following Johnson's firing last July.
According to a criminal
complaint the detectives filed against Johnson, Avalon police first encountered
Szilagyi after a report that he was fighting with another man that night.
Police contend Szilagyi ran away before police arrived and was found hiding in
bushes, then struggled and fought with officers while they were handcuffing
him.
On that night, medics were
called to take Szilagyi to a hospital after he was found to have injuries in
the police station holding cell — though police at that time attributed the
injuries to his earlier struggle with officers, according to the complaint.
The detectives determined,
however, that security video from the holding cell showed Johnson walking
Szilagyi to the cell at which point he "literally throws Szilagyi, with
his hands still handcuffed behind his back, into the cell ... propelling the
victim forward with such force as to cause him to leave his feet, hurtling
head-first toward the floor and rear wall of the holding cell," according
to their complaint.
Another officer enters the cell
and leaves with Johnson, closing the door, before a third officer arrives and
Szilagyi can be seen "with a large puddle of blood drops on the floor in
front of him," the detectives said.
Online court records show
Szilagyi pleaded guilty to simple assault, resisting arrest and disorderly
conduct stemming from the earlier fight and encounter with police and was
sentenced to a year's probation. He could not immediately be located for
comment because he's in the county jail awaiting trial on charges including
aggravated assault, drunken driving and burglary stemming from two separate and
unrelated incidents earlier this year.
Szilagyi's criminal defense
attorney for his April 2012 arrest said he couldn't comment on whether Szilagyi
pursued a claim for his injuries, citing a confidentiality agreement. Federal
and county court records show no record of a lawsuit.
Avalon police officials did not
immediately return calls for comment on the verdict, or about the request for a
drug test that prompted Johnson's firing.