Cleveland officers sue Avon Lake man with hepatitis C who spat in their faces
CLEVELAND, Ohio Jan 24 2019– Two Cleveland police officers filed suit against an Avon Lake man who spit in their faces and declared that he had hepatitis C last January.
Officers Darian Laska and Timothy McKenzie filed the lawsuit in Lorain County Common Pleas Court on Friday. The suit accuses Matthew Wenzler of assaulting them and inflicting emotional distress. They seek the chance to take their case to a jury and ask for compensatory and punitive damages.
The officers are represented by Patrick Murphy of the personal-injury law firm Dworkin and Bernstein. Murphy did not return a voicemail seeking comment Tuesday.
No attorney is listed for Wenzler, who could not be reached for comment.
Plaintiffs can file lawsuits in either the county where the underlying incident took place or the defendant’s home county.
The suit stems from a Jan. 19, 2018 encounter outside JACK Casino in downtown Cleveland.
A Cuyahoga Community College police officer came upon Wenzler about 2:45 a.m. as the then-27-year-old lay on the sidewalk outside the casino near Prospect Avenue and Ontario Street.
That officer said Wenzler appeared drunk and passed out, and he called Cleveland police to help, according to a police report. When Laska and McKenzie got to the scene, a security guard from the Casino came outside and said Wenzler was thrown out of the casino about a half-hour earlier, the report says.
The officers called for an ambulance to take Wenzler to Lutheran Hospital, according to the lawsuit. Wenzler awoke as Cleveland EMS technicians loaded him into the squad. He grabbed the paramedic’s uniforms and flailed around, the report said. Wenzler screamed at the officers as they tried to take him into custody, the report says. He then spat in McKenzie’s face and said he was “Hep-C positive,” according to records. McKenzie was treated by EMS technicians at the scene.
Wenzler spit in Laska’s face when he got to the hospital, according to court records.
Both of the officers were tested for the virus at the hospital. The lawsuit does not allege that the officers contracted the virus.
Wenzler in May pleaded guilty to harassment by inmate, a third-degree felony, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. A judge granted him early release in September after he spent a total of nine months behind bars, and he was placed into a re-entry program and housed at Harbor Light, a sober-living facility, and he remains on probation.
Cleveland.com
