TRENTON — A state appeals court panel today upheld a six-month suspension imposed on State Police Trooper Kevin Husband, who was found guilty of using pepper spray on a suspect who was already handcuffed in the back seat of a patrol car.

Husband was also found guilty of trying to cover up his actions by saying in State Police reports and again in an appeal hearing that the spraying took place outside the car during a scuffle.

The three-judge panel found the evidence against Husband supported the State Police’s findings that he used excessive force and then filed false or misleading official reports on the incident.

“Husband’s conduct was severe and unbecoming to his position as a public safety official and the penalty imposed demonstrably took into consideration his lack of any history of misconduct,” the court wrote in its decision.

The six-month suspension was handed down in 2011 by Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes, who has the final say over trooper discipline. His decision overruled a two-month suspension that had been suggested by an administrative law judge.

An attorney for Husband, Kevin McCann, said he was "extremely disappointed" by the decision and will ask the state Supreme Court to take up the case.

Although McCann has insisted his client did nothing wrong, investigators cited a recording, made by video camera in his car, in which he told another trooper, "I juiced him up in the back of the car with some go juice."

According to the court documents, a woman identified as Zera Hilton complained in 2008 that the trooper used excessive force after responding to a report of an assault at her home in Upper Deerfield.

Husband claimed in police reports that he used pepper spray on D'Andre Lewis, one of two men suspected of fighting in the home, outside the patrol car and only after Lewis tried to resist arrest and damage the car. He said he ushered Lewis into the car after using the spray.

But an investigation by internal affairs, which reviewed the recording of the arrest, showed no indication that Lewis resisted arrest or tried to flee, and that he quickly entered the car, court documents show.

“While the recording did not explicitly depict when (Lewis) was sprayed, it was clear that both of Husband’s versions were untrue,” the panel said in its ruling.

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