CLARKSBURG — A former West Virginia University student is suing the City of Morgantown Police Department for alleged battery and excessive force.
Monongalia Emergency Medical Services, PFC S. Iambamrung, PFC Fallinger, the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation and unnamed correctional officers of the North Central Regional Jail were also named as defendants in the suit.
Frank Bjorn Xavier Held was a student at West Virginia University. On Aug. 20, 2021, he made the mistake of drinking too much and his roommates called EMS to help him, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
Held claims when officers arrived, he was in his bedroom, disoriented and covered in his own vomit and the officers made a false report that he was alert and oriented and had refused medical treatment.
"Despite the obvious signs of Mr. Held's poor condition, the Morgantown Police Department officers involved arrested the Plaintiff and transported him to the North Central Regional Jail in an unconscionable state," the complaint states. "Because Mr. Held was in such a state, he continued to be disoriented and argumentative at the North Central Regional Jail. In direct relation for Mr. Held's mere words during processing, correctional officers took him into a back room, demanded he strip naked, bend over, spread his cheeks and then proceeded to pepper spray him in this defenseless state in his rectum."
Later, all criminal charges against Held were dismissed and his record was expunged.
The defendants acted with the intent to deprive and/or with reckless disregard for Held's constitutional rights, according to the suit.
Held claims the filing of a false report and failure to intervene when the officer-defendants began to treat Held's situation as an arrest rather than the medical emergency it was, constitutes negligence.
Held is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. He is represented by Ryan J. Umina Beth L. Umina and Seth F. Huy of Umina Legal in Morgantown and J. Morgan Leach of Morgan Leach Law in Vienna.
The case is assigned to Federal Judge Tom Kleeh.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number: 1:23-cv-00059