Altoona police officer recorded punches in affidavit
Police report details incident at local apartment building
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The Altoona police officer seen punching a man in a now-viral video taken July 4 in a city apartment, then posted Wednesday on a police watchdog YouTube channel, wrote in his affidavit of probable cause for the incident that he struck the man twice in the face with his closed fist.
Patrolman Travis Glass and other officers were investigating a confrontation that had occurred between Ryan Coke, 43, and another apartment complex resident, and Glass forced his way in, after Coke and tenant Melissa Gleixner, 35, refused to give their names, telling police no crime had been committed, according to the affidavit.
Glass went after Coke, grabbing his wrist and telling him to put down a cigarette, and the defendant flipped a coffee table and tried to pull his arm away. Glass was "struck on the head by the defendant," lost his grip on the defendant's arm and, after Coke fell onto a couch, threw the punches, according to the police report.
The struggle between the two continued afterward, with another patrolman helping Glass get Coke under control, according to court documents.
While the officers made their entry in response to the refusal of Coke and Gleixner to identify themselves, and while Glass insisted that they give their names in connection with the "harassment issue" between Coke and the other resident, Glass wrote at the end of the affidavit that he told Coke later "that he was correct -- in PA he did not have to identify himself."
Glass had insisted on the identifications in the midst of the standoff, however, because he was concerned that not getting them would "prolong the entire incident," because each of the contending parties was claiming the other had been the aggressor and -- perhaps most important -- because he was concerned that Coke would come back with a weapon if he disappeared into the apartment, according to the affidavit.
Coke told Glass "that he understood" after the officer gave his explanation, according to the affidavit.
Fellow Officer Nicholas Tartalone, who was on scene at the apartment, and who wrote the affidavit of probable cause against Gleixner, argued that Glass forcing his way into the apartment was legally justified.
Given that Coke himself told Glass that the other resident had threatened to "whoop his ass," "the incident potentially rose from being 'nothing' to possibly at least up to the level of harassment,"
Tartalone wrote. "Due to Coke being involved in an official police investigation into possible harassment between the two parties, Patrolman Glass rightfully requested (that) Coke identify himself."
And while both Coke and Gleixner were claiming that no crime had been committed, "Coke himself was alleging to have been the victim of a possible crime," Tartalone wrote. "As such, Coke was legally obligated to identify himself, not only as a possible victim, but also as a possible suspect," given the other residents' contradictory accounts of the confrontation.
By retreating into the apartment, Glass -- and in starting to close the door, Gleixner -- "both placed themselves in violation of obstructing (the) administration of law," according to the Gleixner affidavit.
Unlike some other states, Pennsylvania is not a "stop and ID state," according to a legal blog post by the Worgul, Sarna and Ness law firm of Pittsburgh.
Those other states, including Nevada and Arizona, have laws that make it a crime to refuse to identify oneself "when approached by police" "if an officer has reasonable suspicion of criminal activity," according to the post.
By contrast, Pennsylvania law only requires people to identify themselves to police at a traffic stop, during which drivers must provide a valid driver's license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance; and otherwise, only "if police have reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe you're involved in criminal activity" that would justify detainment, according to the article.
The video of the interaction between the officers and the couple in the apartment was posted on the LackLuster YouTube channel, which is operated by a member of a community of "auditors" who make a practice of testing government agencies on whether they comply with the protections enumerated in the Bill of Rights, according to Skip Finnegan, a member of that community who lives in Massachusetts and who alerted the Mirror Wednesday to the local video on LackLuster.
After one day, the video had received almost 250,000 views, Finnegan said.
He has watched the video several times and is "absolutely outraged" by it, he said.
Some auditors do their testing politely, while others push "the boundaries," Finnegan said.
The Altoona couple weren't necessarily functioning as auditors in refusing to comply with police demands for identification, but they showed a fine sense of their rights, Finnegan said.
To have come into the house legally would have required the officer to have obtained an arrest warrant or for them to have probable cause that a crime had been committed, Finnegan said.
The statements from Coke and the resident with whom Coke had the confrontation were insufficient to justify the forced entry, according to Finnegan.
A participant in the July 4 incident has filed a complaint against the Altoona Police Department in connection with that incident, and that complaint will be reviewed according to the normal process, Police Chief Joe Merrill said Wednesday.
Because it included use of force at an actionable level, the incident will also be reviewed by the department's Use of Force Board, Merrill said.
Because the incident resulted in charges, the courts will also have the opportunity to sort out the legal issues, Merrill said.
Coke is facing two misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and one misdemeanor count of harassment, while Gleixner was also charged with two counts of resisting arrest, along with one misdemeanor count of obstructing administration of law and one summary count of disorderly conduct. Both are scheduled for preliminary hearings before Magisterial District Judge Benjamin F. Jones on Aug. 20.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.