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To settle suits against Kovach, Warren paid about $350,000
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Richard Kovach - Warren PD
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Yalanda Dukes
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Heidi Gill
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LEGAL COSTS
Warren Police Department
2010:*$350,000
2009:$106,099
2008:$80,943
2007:$54,362
2006:$28,511
2005:$31,380
2004:$125,635
2003:$27,949
2002:$8,417
2001:$23,741
2000:$22,600
1999:$51,062
1998:$37,967
1997:$9,681
1996:$2,700
Total:*$961,011
*Of this amount, the city has unpaid invoices of $164,109.
Source: Warren Auditor David Griffing
By ED RUNYAN
WARREN
Richard Kovach, the patrol officer whose use of a stun gun on bar patron Heidi Gill on Sept. 2, 2007, cost the city $250,000 last month in a court settlement, also had cost the city $105,000 for his treatment of another female bar patron four months earlier.
A city-council committee received a report this week from Law Director Greg Hicks that listed all the legal expenses the police department has incurred in 2010 through Sept. 3. The total is about $350,000 — almost triple the amount paid in any other year since 1996.
It included a listing for Yalanda R. Dukes, 31, of Oak Street, who received a settlement of $85,000 in federal court in March to dismiss a lawsuit she filed against the city based on a May 12, 2007, incident. Legal fees paid to a private law firm to defend the case were an additional $19,874.
Dukes’ suit against Kovach and the city alleged that Kovach used excessive force while responding to a fight at 2:45 a.m. at the Corner Pocket tavern at 822 East Market St.
A document filed by Dukes’ attorney, Gilbert Rucker III, said Kovach saw Dukes fighting with other women, but when Kovach approached her, she stopped fighting and raised her hands. Kovach grabbed her and struck her several times in the head and shoulder area with his police baton without provocation, Rucker said.
Kovach’s police report and a document from the city’s lawyers said Dukes refused to stop fighting, even after he yelled at the women to stop and pushed Dukes backward. He said there were about 100 people at the bar.
City Auditor David Griffing reported that the $300,000 settlement paid to Gill and the $51,453 in legal fees to defend the case will cost the city $250,000 — the amount of the city’s insurance deductible.
The insurance policy requires the city to pay the first $250,000 of any payout or legal fees for any single case. In the Gill case, the cost was $388,000, with the insurance company paying $138,000. About $37,000 in Gill legal fees were paid in 2009, Griffing said.
An additional $10,000 was paid last month to settle a lawsuit filed in federal court in June by two men who were called a derogatory name for a black person in August 2009 by Joseph Marhulik, an off-duty police lieutenant.
The city paid a $10,000 settlement to Michael Walker of Fourth Street Southwest and Henry J. Coleman of Highland Avenue Southwest last month to drop a federal suit Rucker filed on their behalf for mental anguish, suffering and humiliation.
Councilman Bob Dean said he doesn’t believe settling both cases involving Kovach necessarily indicates that Kovach was guilty of all allegations, but the city’s lawyers know when the cost to defend a lawsuit is too great to take a chance on losing.
He added that police officers received a great deal of additional training on the use of stun guns after the Gill incident and now get regular letters, bulletins and training on topics that will help them avoid future incidents.
“It’s a tough job,” he added of police work. “Stuff’s gonna happen.”