Inmate’s lawsuit charging Altoona police officers with excessive force settled out of court
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A federal civil rights lawsuit in which two Altoona Police officers were alleged to have used excessive force to subdue an out-of-control pretrial detainee being held in a police department cell has been settled out of court, according to an order issued recently by U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines.
The incident occurred on Nov. 15, 2020, when officers took into custody an Altoona man, Ryan Scott Noel, and placed him in a department holding cell.
According to the facts of the case, as outlined by one the judges who presided over a pretrial hearing in the civil suit against the officers, Noel, upon his arrest, had swallowed five grams of methamphetamine -- which they had failed to detect on their initial search of the suspect.
Judge D. Brooks Smith, a former Blair County judge and a senior judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, who presided over the pretrial hearing, reported Noel, several hours after his arrest, "began shouting and pounding on his cell door."
When Officer Timothy J. Miksich Jr. told Noel to stop, he refused.
Miksich entered the cell, followed by another officer, Timothy J. Campolong Jr.
As Smith described, "Fists flew, shouts rang out," and eventually it took several officers to cuff Noel and put him in a restraining chair.
As a result of the all-out brawl, Noel ended up pleading to aggravated assault of the officers, for which he is serving a prison term of three to 10 years in the State Correctional Institution, Greene County.
In return, Noel filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the officers, charging they used excessive force in cuffing him.
Noel, now 30, and is 6 foot, 10 inches, maintained he suffered multiple bruises as a result of the confrontation, but was not seriously hurt.
The officers argued they did not use excessive force.
In their defense, they pointed out Noel not only brawled with them, but at one point was attempting to gain access to one the officer's guns.
The civil rights case was initially assigned to now-retired Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto, presiding in the District Court in Johnstown.
He recommended the motions to dismiss filed by the officers be granted.
But Haines, who reviewed videos of the incident which showed Noel was repeatedly punched by one of the officers, rejected Pesto's recommendation.
In her opinion, she noted a jury "may reasonably conclude that the incident was unnecessarily escalated when Miksich opened the cell door, entered the cell, forced Noel on the bench, and then was joined by Campolong and six other officers."
She explained the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause protects a pretrial detainee from "excessive force that amounts to punishment."
Earlier this year, Smith, sitting by designation, meaning he was appointed to hear the case, granted dismissal of several of Noel's claims.
Noel had claimed for instance that one of the officers should have intervened to prevent the other officer from punching him. He also claimed he received inadequate medical care after the incident, and he objected to being placed in a restraint chair.
Those charges by Noel were dismissed.
But Smith denied dismissal concerning Noel's excessive force and state assault and battery charges.
As their defense, the officers had to show the force they used did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, Smith explained.
Smith, in his opinion, also noted that the two officers and Noel agreed that what occurred in the police department that day should have never happened.
The judge in his opinion stated that Miksich "speculated that he could've defused tensions if he'd been a little bit calmer."
Campolong admitted he threw the fist punch, explaining that during the scuffle, his head hit a wall of the cell and he mistook the blow as a strike by Noel.
Noel himself "regretted his role, reflecting that he should have let the officers say what they said and that would have been it," Smith wrote.
The settlement between the parties is to remain confidential until being approved by the city council at a public meeting.