Pittsburgh detective involved in brawl sues bar, Pagans
Claims club members attacked officers first
The Pittsburgh police detective caught on video punching a defenseless member of the Pagans motorcycle club 19 times in the face at Kopy’s Bar has sued the South Side tavern as well as the man he repeatedly struck.
Filed Sept. 5 in U.S. District Court by Detective David Lincoln and his wife, Deborah Siwik, the countersuit offers the most extensive details to date about what led up to the melee. Information had been vague about what the detectives were doing in the bar Oct. 11 on South 12th Street and their perspective on why the brawl with four Pagans erupted.
Detective Lincoln and Ms. Siwik accuse Pagans members Frank DeLuca and Michael Zokaites of assault and battery, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, conspiracy and loss of consortium. They make some of the same legal claims against Kopy’s, accusing the bar of not providing security and not taking measures to oust the Pagans before violence broke out.
Detective Lincoln says he was put on administrative leave and lost money as a result of the incident. He and his wife seek damages of more than $75,000. All four former narcotics officers involved in the fight are back on the job, having been reassigned to the bureau’s violent crime unit.
The lawsuit does not refer to any alcohol use by Detective Lincoln or his partners. The bar owner and lawyers for the Pagans say the detectives drank for hours at Kopy’s before the fight.
Kopy’s attorney, George R. Farneth II, called the lawsuit allegations “meritless”
“I think they are trying hard to stay away from any spotlight on their conduct. I suspect that part of the reason they were reassigned involves their conduct that night and potentially the violation of certain rules whether written or unwritten in the department,” Mr. Farneth said Friday.
“I’m wondering why he didn’t name his co-officers as defendants because they were part and parcel and the impetus behind the brawl in the first place.”
The detectives said they were working undercover; the Pagans claimed the officers started the fight after drinking all evening and then hauled them to jail on false charges.
The mayhem spawned multiple investigations — the officers were cleared of excessive force, and charges against the Pagans were dropped — and lawsuits. In one suit, Mr. DeLuca said Detective Brian Burgunder held him by his hair and arms while Detectives Lincoln and David Honick punched him, and a uniformed officer who came to assist used pepper spray on him.
Mr. DeLuca’s attorney, James DePasquale, called the lawsuit’s claims “nonsensical” and said his client had no idea Detective Lincoln was a police officer.
“My client is not a member of any criminal organization. He’s never been convicted of any crime,” Mr. DePasquale said. “He’s a union electrician who works for a living. That’s all he is ... My guy didn’t do anything to Lincoln, and no one else did anything to Lincoln that I could see on that tape. What Lincoln did was beyond disgraceful.”
He said Mr. DeLuca suffered serious elbow injuries that kept him out of work for 11 weeks.
Mr. Zokaites’ attorney, Wendy Williams, said her client was being sued “by the very cop that assaulted him.”
“It’s a travesty that Dave Lincoln and his wife are trying to make themselves out to be victims in this case,” Ms. Williams said.
In the new countersuit, the plaintiffs said Detective Lincoln was assigned Oct. 11 to conduct surveillance of a “known drug dealer” who was “believed to be working out of Kopy’s Bar.”
The man, who is named in the lawsuit, was not one of the four Pagans charged in the fight.
Detective Lincoln and his partners — Detectives Burgunder, Honick and Brian Martin — posed as construction workers. They sat immediately inside the entrance of the bar, which the suit described as a place that “permitted and encouraged” the Pagans to hang out. The Pagans are described in the suit as “a recognized criminal organization.”
Around 9:15 p.m. Oct. 11, the target walked in, the suit said. Mr. Deluca and Mr. Zokaites came in about 11:40 p.m.
Both groups kept their distance until Detective Honick asked the two Pagans about a member of their club from McKeesport. Two minutes later, three more Pagans came in, prompting Detective Honick to ask them about the McKeesport man.
The suit describes the conversations as “nonthreatening and non-confrontational” and claims they did not jeopardize the officers’ cover as construction workers.
Just after midnight Oct. 12, a woman came in who recognized Detective Honick, the suit said, and the Pagans started staring at the officers, talking with each other and gesturing toward them.
Detective Burgunder called his sergeant to warn him that their cover may have been blown. A short time later, Detective Martin approached the Pagans “and engaged in small talk in an attempt to determine definitively whether their cover had been compromised,” the suit said.
After a “cordial” chat ending in handshakes, the officers decided honesty was best, and Detective Martin again went up to the Pagans and revealed the officers’ true identities, the suit said.
He told the Pagans “that the detectives were not at Kopy’s Bar for any reason related to the Pagans; that is, the Pagans were not the subject of the undercover operation,” according to the suit.
Two men identified in the suit as Pagans — neither of whom was involved in the fight — left, but not before they “made eye contact with the police detectives and waved goodbye.”
Mr. DeLuca and Mr. Zokaites also left but quickly returned.
“Concerned with the behavior of the Pagans, who are known to engage in ambush tactics, Martin again approached Zokaites to inquire as to the Pagans’ behavior,” the suit said.
Detective Burgunder called for backup. Mr. DeLuca and Mr. Zokaites came up to the detectives and “escalated” the situation, the suit claimed. Mr. DeLuca poked Detective Honick in the chest, the police backup arrived and then things went haywire.
Mr. DeLuca “lunged at Honick’s neck,” and officers spotted a gun on Mr. DeLuca, the suit said. Mr. Zokaites yelled, “‘War,’ which is well known by law enforcement as a call for all Pagans to join in on a fight,” the suit said.
The plaintiffs claimed Mr. Zokaites punched Detective Lincoln at least five times in the back of the head, kicked him and struck his head on the floor. They also alleged that Mr. DeLuca tried to poke the detective’s eyes.
Video showed that an officer pinned Mr. DeLuca to the bar while Detective Lincoln struck him 19 times in the face, leading to what the Pagan said in a lawsuit was head and face trauma and a dislocated elbow.
In his countersuit, Detective Lincoln described that encounter this way: “Due to DeLuca’s possession of a firearm, Lincoln continued to attempt to restrain DeLuca even after pepper spray had been sprayed in the vicinity of Lincoln, DeLuca, Burgunder and Honick. Once additional uniformed police officers entered the bar, Lincoln disengaged from DeLuca due to the effects of the pepper spray.”
Detective Lincoln claimed to have hurt his right hand and head and suffered bruises, headaches and eye irritation.
Kopy’s did not have security that night, according to the suit. And after the female patron outed the officers, the bartender on duty did not provide security or evict the Pagans, the suit said.
Mr. Farneth, the bar’s attorney, described Kopy’s as a “family-owned and -operated” business with a “stellar” record. He acknowledged that Pagans members have patronized Kopy’s, but only occasionally and always without problems.
“During the course of the evening and before the altercation started, it was made known to the bartender that the four gentlemen seated at the end of the bar closest to the door were in fact undercover City of Pittsburgh police officers,” Mr. Farneth said. “So why would you need security? Why would you need to call police if the police were already there?”