Categories: News, Schenectady County

Rotterdam police were retrained in defensive techniques this year after the town was sued for the department’s handling of a then 17-year-old’s emotional episode that left the boy with a broken arm.

“We felt as though this was a misapplication of defensive technique procedures, so we resent every officer in the department to a defensive techniques class,” Deputy Chief Bill Manikas said Monday.

The department is also now retraining its officers in how to deal with emotionally distressed people, he said.





The lawsuit, filed by the parents of Jacob Gocheski, the teenager who was riding a Mohonasen Central School District bus during the Oct. 9, 2013, incident, resulted in a $360,000 settlement, the Rotterdam family’s attorney said late last week. The incident gained wide attention after bus surveillance video of the incident went online.

Police were called to the school bus, which was stopped outside Gocheski’s home, after Gocheski refused to get off the bus. After speaking with Gocheski, the officers physically removed him from the seat, with one officer holding the teen down over the seat and the other pulling his arm behind his back, which resulted in the broken arm.

Gocheski’s injuries “were the result of the town’s negligence and deliberate indifference to the plight of the emotionally disturbed,” according to the lawsuit.

The officers who removed Gocheski from the bus were identified as Daniel P. Ryan and Ronald R. Armstrong. Both remain active members of the department.

All 37 of the department’s patrol and detective division officers went through the in-house defensive training at the Schalmont High School gymnasium in February “where the instructors refresh you on what’s called soft-hand techniques, which is basically what you saw the officer doing in that video,” Manikas said.

Manikas said the training contributed to the department’s state requirement, as an accredited agency, that every officer receive at least 21 hours of training per year.

“We exceed that by substantial amounts,” he said.

Since last year, about half of the department has undergone what is called emotionally distressed person training taught by retired Rochester police officer Eric Weaver. The traveling program, called Overcoming The Darkness, seeks to “reduce stigma” and “increase understanding surrounding the many challenges of mental health related issues” among other goals, according to its website.





Manikas said that training, which is done over four days, should be completed within the year.

“That’s obviously very expensive for us, so we’re trying to see if the vendor would give a one- or two-day course,” Manikas said.

In a statement issued by Kevin Luibrand, attorney for the Gocheski family, last week, Jacob Gocheski’s parents, Phillip and Rosemarie Gocheski, said they learned from the suit that the Rotterdam Police Department had no policies, plan or training on how to approach the emotionally disabled.

“With or without training, we feel that no police officer should feel the need to break someone’s arm in such a manner as was done to our son in order to remove him from a school bus,” the statement read.

In the video footage of the incident, Gocheski had been speaking with officers, refusing to get off the bus, for about 15 minutes before the incident occurred. The officers are seen grappling with Gocheski shortly before there is an audible snap and the boy begins to scream.

Gocheski was charged the next day with obstructing governmental administration, a misdemeanor that was later dismissed.

Reach Gazette reporter