Sharon Hill PD
PHILADELPHIA – A currently incarcerated man says when he was free he was run over by a Sharon Hill cop, though at the time he was a suspect in a brutal home invasion in Montgomery County.
Stephen Bytheway sued detectives Sean Johnson and Vincent Procopio over his apprehension in March 2024. He was walking down a dark alley when Johnson drove into him with his white SUV, a lawsuit filed Nov. 10 in Philadelphia federal court says.
“Defendant Johnson struck Plaintiff with the SUV, and the momentum of the vehicle caused Plaintiff’s body to lift onto the hood of the vehicle,” the suit says.
“Plaintiff desperately screamed for Defendant Johnson to stop the vehicle as he felt himself being pulled under the front of the car. Fearing that he would be killed, Plaintiff clung to the hood of the vehicle as Defendant Johnson travelled approximately 12 feet forward.”
At this point, Johnson swerved into a parked vehicle and Johnson fell off the hood and was pinned between the two, he says. Bytheway adds he was unaware there was an arrest warrant for him and that arresting officers used excessive force.
He was left with injuries to his hip, leg and chest, he says. Bytheway is scheduled for trial next month on disturbing charges from a 2023 robbery in Springfield Township.
Prosecutors say he and four other men beat an elderly man in his home and burned him with a blowtorch. They were searching for gold they believed was in the home after being tipped off by a seller.
Laurie Jubelirer of Jubelirer Law represents Bytheway.