CLARKSBURG – A lawsuit accusing West Virginia State Police troopers and Braxton County deputies of brutality has settled for nearly $400,000.
The Charleston law firm of DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress filed the civil rights case last year in federal court on behalf of Robert Marsh against Trooper J.R. Garrett and deputies A. Jordan, L. Johnson and A. Groves.
The case recently settled for $390,000 with the State Police and Braxton County officers each paying for half of the settlement. The final order was filed last month and officially entered July 7, according to court filings.
In the complaint, Marsh said he was at the Star Bar in Sutton on September 17, 2022, when he got into an argument with another patron because Marsh was dating the other patron’s former girlfriend. Police were called and arrived within minutes, according to court filings. One of the county deputies was the brother of the other patron.
Right before police arrived, Marsh says he was sucker-punched by another bar customer and temporarily knocked out. When the officers arrived, Marsh was lying on the ground unconscious.
The officers interacted with Marsh for 15 minutes, according to court documents. The other bar patrons were told to go inside while Marsh was handcuffed behind his back. Then, he says officers carried him outside the fence that surrounded the bar.
After those 15 minutes, one of the officers called for emergency medical assistance because of the injuries Marsh had sustained. He was taken by ambulance to Braxton County Hospital and then transferred to a Morgantown hospital because of the severity of his injuries.
Marsh claims the officers kicked him repeatedly in the face and other parts of his body, telling him never to mess with the deputy’s brother. No video of the alleged assault was ever produced because allegedly the State Police officer’s bodycam, which had recorded an interview just prior to the State Police officer entering the Bar, either had been turned off or the batteries had died.
Attorneys Tim DiPiero and Lonnie Simmons say they provided unrefuted medical testimony that the multiple facial fractures and other injuries suffered by Marsh could not have come from a single punch.
Marsh suffered what are called LeFort fractures on both sides of his face, which required surgery and the placement of metal plates and screws. Marsh also suffered rib fractures, vertebral body transverse fracture, lung contusion, chronic facial numbness, jaw misalignment, right shoulder pain, exacerbation of sleep apnea due to misalignment of his jaw, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The police officers totally denied ever kicking or assaulting Marsh in any way. The settlement was reached without the defendants making any admission of wrongdoing.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number 1:24-cv-48
