The West Virginia Supreme Court could wind up deciding whether a State Police trooper involved in a late-night, roadside altercation with a juvenile suspect should return to work or stay off the force.
Trooper Derek Walker was among several officers involved in the November, 2018, arrest and beating of a 16-year-old suspect. Since then, Walker has been fighting to stay on the job.
A hearing examiner first heard the case and concluded Walker should be terminated. This July, Circuit Judge David Hammer of Jefferson County reversed that and ordered Walker’s reinstatement.
The judge concluded Walker should be restored to his rank and active duty position and to be repaid lost pay, benefits and seniority.
Now, the state Attorney General’s Office has filed notice that it intends to appeal to the Supreme Court in an attempt to keep Walker off the State Police force. The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Md., first reported the latest events in the saga.
Judge Hammer rejected a stay request to keep Walker off the job pending appeal. But a spokeswoman for the State Police indicated Walker remains off the force while the legal issues remain under review.
“The West Virginia State Police has appealed the circuit court’s order to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to stay the order pending disposition of the appeal,” stated Captain Shallon Oglesby, deputy chief of Staff Services for the State Police.
“We hope to have a ruling on the motion soon.”
Walker is defending a job that connects him to a significant history of service with the State Police.
His father was one of the first black officers in the West Virginia State Police, serving for 26 years, according to the trooper’s testimony. Walker himself went through the State Police Academy when he was 21, focused on drug interdiction and participated in more than 300 arrests. Walker was the first black K-9 officer in state history, he testified.
“He was in his eighth year of service and had no history of discipline before the events of November 19, 2018,” Hammer wrote in his order restoring Walker to his job.
But Walker had been the subject of prior scrutiny in other cases.
Walker was involved with seizing $10,000 in cash from a New Jersey couple without charging them with a crime. Their money was returned months later. The couple told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that they filed a complaint against Walker
He was also accused in a lawsuit of harassing and roughing up a 49-year-old woman during an arrest. The State Police professional standards section, in an investigative report, cleared Walker. A federal judge dismissed the State Police and Walker from the lawsuit. The woman, just a few months ago, filed a federal appeal that remains active.
Walker and other officers became the subject of statewide scrutiny after a young man crashed into a parked cruiser outside a Berkeley County bar called Jack Rabbit’s, led officers on a high-speed chase, hit a utility pole and rolled.
The order by Judge Hammer says Trooper Walker later smelled marijuana coming from the vehicle and found drug paraphernalia, a scale and about $2,000 cash.
The events after the early morning crash, illuminated by the highbeams of police cruisers and with grainy recordings captured by dash cameras, went under the public spotlight when Gov. Jim Justice expressed outrage.
“The suspect was stopped by troopers after a pursuit and dashcam video taken at the scene shows the suspect being beaten by the two troopers,” Justice stated in a Nov. 29, 2018, news release.
“While I proudly support the brave efforts of our law enforcement agencies every day it must be perfectly clear that I will NOT tolerate this kind of behavior in any way, shape, form, or fashion.”
Moments after the crash, officers broke out the driver’s side window and pulled the 5-foot-8, 140-pound suspect from the vehicle. The juvenile landed on the ground hard, sprawled out.
The Attorney Genera’s Office contends that’s the moment matters spiraled out of hand:
“The circuit court’s version of the facts improperly minimized, if not ignored, the importance of the horrific crash sustained by the juvenile and its impact on Mr. Walker’s conduct once he approached the crashed vehicle, including the method by which he violently extricated the juvenile through the broken window, the subsequent force used on the juvenile once the juvenile was face-down on the ground, and the violent and inexcusable method by which he brought the juvenile to his feet once his hands were hand-cuffed behind his back.”
Officers, including Walker, former Trooper Michael Kennedy and local sheriff’s deputies, surrounded the suspect. Some of the officers can be seen on video can be seen hitting the suspect’s head.
Walker, while trying to handcuff the suspect, kicks him.
A short time later, video showed Walker trying to hoist the suspect to his feet, lifting the juvenile by the cuffs from behind. Walker’s legs then entangled with the suspects and both fell to the ground.
None of that was reported at first but was discovered later during a check of the dashcam video.
Major Christopher White, director of professional standards for the State Police, testified before a grievance committee hearing that an investigation of Walker’s conduct was completed on an accelerated schedule — “actually, a lot faster than normal” — because the dash cam video had been publicly released and because of the governor’s press release distributed at mid-day Thursday, Nov. 29.
White selected five charges to be investigated by 1st Lt. Kevin Smouse of the professional standards section:
- whether Walker had used unnecessary excessive force,
- whether the trooper had conducted himself in a manner unbecoming of a state trooper when he failed to report the extent of force used,
- whether Walker’s conduct failed to comply with State Police Policy,
- whether the trooper interfered with the suspect’s rights
- and whether he engaged in criminal conduct.
Smouse did not sustain four of the allegations but concluded that Walker committed conduct not becoming of a police officer.
“It — just the totality of everything that happened, the — I believe the technique that Trooper Walker used, I wasn’t comfortable saying it was excessive, but I believe it looked — it was a poor decision to utilize a foot and strike somebody with it,” Smouse testified at a grievance hearing. “I believe it looked bad when it was on video.”
White, though, dissented from Smouse’s findings and reinstated all of the findings but one: He agreed there was no criminal culpability.
Walker was fired on Jan. 17, 2019.
Judge Hammer, in his review, concluded that officers had every right to believe they were in a dangerous situation because the suspect had driven off at such a high speed right after crashing into a parked cruiser. The chase along darkened Route 11 nearly resulted in the suspect colliding head-on with two southbound vehicles.
“A suspect willing to risk the lives of innocent occupants of other cars has no regard for the lives of officers,” Hammer wrote.
The judge concluded that the officers acted responsibly by quickly pulling the suspect from the smoking vehicle, even though they wound up tossing him to the ground.
“As it turned out,” the judge wrote that the suspect “was relatively light and so he was propelled quickly when the officers removed him.”
As Walker and the other officers then tried to subdue the juvenile, Judge Hammer concluded they could not be sure at first if he had a concealed weapon. Walker’s kicks, the judge ruled, were not excessive.
And when Walker tried to lift the suspect to his feet, the judge wrote, “All that is clear is that both Trooper Walker and (the suspect) fell to the ground nearly immediately – obviously not a desired result from Trooper Walker’s perspective.”
The Attorney General’s Office, in its filing with the Supreme Court, contended that Judge Hammer substituted his own judgment for that of the hearing examiner and the State Police’s own director of professional standards.
Lawyers for the state also contend Judge Hammer placed inappropriate emphasis on the conduct of the young suspect before the chase began and after he was transported to the hospital following the beating.
They wrote that restoring Walker to his former active duty position – while also providing back pay — during an appeal “will not only be disruptive to the operations of the agency, but is also unreasonable.”