In many police academies it has been a traditional practice for recruits to face off for a good ass-kicking session just to see if they were man-enough to be cops.
Some academies have been run like Marine Corps boot camps. After twenty-some weeks of getting treated like shit, some new cops will hit the streets felling that now it was their turn treat others – members of the public - the same way.
NORFOLK POLICE RECRUIT’S WIDOW FILES LAWSUIT
By Patrick Wilson
The Virginian-Pilot
August 18, 2011
NORFOLK, Va. — A lawsuit filed in the 2010 death of a police recruit alleges that "repeated, violent blows to the head" of John Kohn by training instructors resulted in a brain hemorrhage that created a subdural hematoma and caused his death.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Circuit Court by Kohn's widow, Patricia Kohn, asks for $35 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages.
The suit names: Bruce P. Marquis, the former police chief; Sharon Chamberlin, current acting police chief and former senior assistant chief over the training division; and officers who trained recruits in defensive tactics - Leldon Sapp, Stephen Bailey, Michael Reardon and Laura Tessier.
The financial amount is simply the ceiling past which a jury cannot go, said James C. Lewis, Patricia Kohn's attorney.
"The value of the harms and losses this family has suffered will be left up to a jury, not me," Lewis said. "This is about a whole lot more than replacing lost wages. This is a family that's been destroyed."
Subdural hematoma occurs when blood vessels rupture between the brain and the outermost of three membrane layers that cover it, according to Mayo Clinic, which operates hospitals in Minnesota, Florida and Arizona. Leaking blood forms a hematoma that compresses brain tissue and will cause unconsciousness and death if it continues enlarging.
Kohn, 40, died in a hospital in December after he was injured during a week of defensive tactics training. He was hit in the head during drills - strikes that were routine training in Norfolk at the time - and also collided with another recruit while running.
Since then, the department has joined other agencies in banning intentional head strikes during training. Experts have noted that headgear worn by recruits does not prevent them from getting head injuries.
The lawsuit alleges Marquis and Chamberlin failed to properly operate and supervise the training academy and alleges the instructors hit Kohn in the head, causing his death.
Kohn blacked out after three sparring drills in which he was expected to block blows from instructors on top of him. The third drill led to public outrage after the release of a video that showed Sapp hitting Kohn, whose arms then fell flat to the mat. A few minutes later, he began making snoring and gurgling noises and was taken to the hospital. He never regained consciousness.
Although instructors asked recruits three times a day whether they were injured, Kohn did not speak up.
John Kohn, 40, died in December after he was injured during a week of defensive tactics training in Norfolk.
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