Schenectady

Vebra Moore has little recollection of the night she was knocked unconscious in a holding cell by two Schenectady police officers.

Moore, who weighs 100 pounds and was handcuffed behind her back, was struck repeatedly with fists and knees. Blood from her split-open head pooled on the floor and streaked a wall where the officers shackled her limp body to a bench and walked away.

"I don't think I ever felt so helpless," Moore said.

Law enforcement officials said the officers, brothers Ryan and Matthew Thorne, acted appropriately and used justifiable force. They alleged Moore initiated the attack because she bit one of the officer's fingers and wouldn't let go. They charged her with felony assault, although a jury later cleared her of the charge.

At her trial last fall, Moore's attorney, James C. Knox, argued that his client could not recall biting the officer. But if she did, he said, it was an act of self defense against a brutal attack.

The incident is one of several recent cases involving allegations of excessive force by a department still haunted by a sweeping federal investigation more than a decade ago into widespread corruption. In 2013, the department was declared reformed after 10 years of federal monitoring that began in 2003 amid investigations by the FBI and U.S. Justice Department into allegations of systemic civil rights violations, excessive force and criminal conduct, including incidents that led to federal prosecutions of officers.

Interviews with people involved in violent encounters with Schenectady police, and a review of videos and court records, raise questions about whether the department began slipping back to its old ways in recent years.

Earlier this month, the city agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle a federal lawsuit with three family members who were beaten in January 2014 by multiple police officers in an allegedly unprovoked attack, according to court records. The victims, siblings Joseph and Dodie Toomer, and Dodie's son, Manuel Toomer, said they were kicked and punched by a group of officers during a raid of their house that was not based on a crime or authorized by a search warrant. The situation turned violent when Joseph Toomer, who was standing on his porch, asked an officer involved in an unrelated search in the neighborhood to stop shining a light in his face.

"Get your f---ing black ass over here because I am going to f--- you up," the officer allegedly said, according to the lawsuit.

According to video footage and details of the incident in the federal lawsuit, police officers violently forced their way into the family's home and allegedly knocked Joseph Toomer unconscious after he tried to use a camera to record what was happening. Toomer was dragged outside where officers kicked and punched him as he lay curled up on the ground, his attorney said. A police K9 dog bit Joseph Toomer repeatedly on his legs and buttocks, leaving bruises and lacerations. Manuel Toomer was also kicked and punched repeatedly, suffering a broken nose and disfiguring injuries to his face. He was Tasered three times after being dragged off the porch.

The Toomers' attorney, Elmer Robert Keach III, declined to comment on the lawsuit because of the pending settlement. But he acknowledged being troubled in general by what he discovered about the Schenectady Police Department's internal review process and, he said, its failure to turn over damning video evidence that he later obtained with a subpoena during the Toomers' criminal trial. He also said the department should require its officers to wear body cameras and strengthen its civilian review board.

"There's no supervision in that department. There's no meaningful internal affairs mechanism that I'm aware of and no effective civilian review panel," Keach said. "When you have these kinds of problems, you have no accountability."

In March, the Times Union reported that a Schenectady lieutenant was suspended last year for his role in an incident in which a woman's head was split open when she was picked up and slammed onto a station bench by two officers. She was then charged with a crime that portrayed her as the aggressor. The 39-year-old woman, Nicola A. Cottone, was handcuffed behind her back at the time. She filed a claim against the city after the Schenectady County district attorney's office asked a judge to dismiss Cottone's criminal charges "in the interest of justice."

Police Chief Eric Clifford, who was sworn in last September, said the swift action the department took in Cottone's case underscores his effort to streamline internal affairs investigations and hold officers accountable for misconduct more quickly.

"I don't want things to linger around for a couple years before people get disciplined," he said.

Clifford confirmed there was an internal investigation into the actions of officers on the night the Toomers were beaten. He said "some discipline" was meted out but declined to provide specifics except to acknowledge no officers were fired.

Clifford began his police career in Schenectady 14 years ago and said he considers himself a "disciplinarian" with little tolerance for misconduct. He acknowledged that his desire to hand out discipline in line with what was done in earlier misconduct cases leaves him feeling constrained. "I kind of still have to stay consistent," he said. "What I have control over is how thoroughly I mete it out."

On Friday, when it was brought to his attention by the Times Union, Clifford said he was troubled by a page on LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals, that's attributed to Ryan Thorne in which his occupation is listed as a "garbage man" whose job for the city of Schenectady is to "remove garbage from home." The page says Thorne has worked for the city since July 2010, which was the month Ryan Thorne was sworn in as a police officer.

"I have no idea what he is implying," the chief said. "Clearly if it is what it appears, I have a problem with it."

Ryan Thorne declined comment and referred questions to the department's public information officer.

The ordeal for Moore began on a Saturday night in October 2015 when she was at a Schenectady bar where a stabbing took place outside. Police began clearing the area but Moore lingered near the crime scene because, she said, she lost her car keys in the bar and had no way to get home. Police say that, after Moore directed offensive language at officers, she was handcuffed and charged with disorderly conduct, obstruction and resisting arrest.

Moore said her knee buckled as officers tackled her to the ground. She says a ligament in her right knee was then torn completely when an officer punched her lower leg as she struggled to get into the back of a police car while handcuffed.

Surveillance video at the station shows the Thorne brothers leading Moore out of a police car and into a hallway that — under departmental policy — is not normally used to escort someone under arrest. Moore acknowledges screaming for help and yelling at the officer that she believed had punched her leg.

Inside the station, video cameras recorded Moore barely able to stand as the officers at times dragged her by the handcuffs — stretching her arms upward behind her so hard that her wrists were as high as the back of her head. Moore said she had trouble standing and walking because of her knee injury.

Professor Gregory G. Gilbertson, a former police officer and SWAT team member who is considered an expert on police policies, including use of force, said Moore was subjected to what's called a "pain-compliance hold" that should have been used only briefly to get to her to walk forward. It's not supposed to be used to carry someone for a distance, he said, and not when other officers are nearby who could help move the person.

"It's very, very painful," he said. "You're supposed to stop doing it ... it's used to get somebody to walk."

Gilbertson, who teaches at Centralia College in Washington state, reviewed video footage from police cameras of Moore's case and said what he saw was very troubling.

"The blood spatter on the wall is shocking," Gilbertson said. "These two police officers are clearly striking a handcuffed woman, which is prima facie evidence of criminal assault and excessive force. Clearly, this young woman was terribly abused by these officers."

Richard J. Brzeczek, a former Chicago police chief and attorney who testifies regularly in trials regarding police training and policies, also reviewed the police station video at the request of the Times Union. He said it's unsettling that Moore was left alone -after she was knocked unconscious and still bleeding from a head wound.

"You don't do that. If somebody has an open wound you take them to the hospital, it's that simple," Brzeczek said. "If she was left unconscious I think that's outrageous."

Moore said she's uncertain how long she remained in the cell before she was eventually transported to Ellis Hospital. But she said the hospital did not close her head wounds. When she was taken to Schenectady County jail from the hospital, she said, they documented her head wounds and made her sign a form confirming the injuries happened before she arrived. Then a nurse used glue to close the wounds, she said.

"I suffer headaches," Moore said, adding they began after the incident. "I get them every day and sometimes it will be so unbearable it's like I'm being stabbed in my head. ... I just had knee surgery to repair my torn ACL."

Multiple people who watched the video at the request of the Times Union said they could not see Moore biting the officer, although records indicate he was treated for a minor bite wound on his index finger. At one point in the video, after Moore was knocked unconscious, it appears that Matthew Thorne, who was wearing black leather gloves, looks briefly at his left hand.

Schenectady County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Hughes, who prosecuted Moore's case last fall, said she believes the officers used the appropriate level of force.

"I truly believe when you watch that video, if you watch it frame-by-frame ... that she was biting down hard on his finger like a vise and would not let go," Hughes said. "They did the best they could to get her to release; they certainly didn't intend to harm her."

The jury deliberated for several days and convicted Moore on the minor charges that led to her arrest, including disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. They acquitted her of the felony assault charge that could have sent her to state prison.

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @brendan_lyonstu