Report details reasons for Covington police officer’s suspension

Last week, Covington Police Chief Justin Wietholter addressed the Covington Board of Commissioners to inform them that officer Zachary Stayton, filmed repeatedly punching a protester during a chaotic encounter with demonstrators on the Roebling Bridge in July, would be placed on a 30-day unpaid suspension.

The address was short, both in terms of time and detail, but LINK nky has since examined the full internal affairs investigation into the police’s actions.

Although Stayton has been disciplined, it wasn’t due to the actions that have drawn a lot of attention to him, i.e., the punching of protestor Brandon Hill. In fact, the investigation found his actions against Hill were “to be within policy and current departmental practice,” according to Sergeant Jeff Cook, who’s responsible for training at the department.

Instead, it was for his actions against another protestor, most likely Logan Imber, and actions during the clearing of the bridge after the protest had been broken up, for which he was docked for “unbecoming conduct.”

What did the investigation actually determine?

What’s in the report?

The investigation report, the entirety of which you can read at the bottom of this story, lays out the events of the day and summarizes the analysis of the department’s internal investigators, who performed the investigation by reviewing body cam footage, footage captured by news orgs and bystanders and doing interviews with officers involved and civilian witnesses.

Hill and Imber’s names are both redacted from the documents, but their identities are discernible from previous news reporting and court filings.

Some of the information in the report had already been shared publicly, but the report gives greater insight into Stayton’s thought process on the bridge.

Stayton’s use of force report contends that Hill had attempted to disarm the pepper ball gun Stayton was using. Stayton also argues that the way Hill had moved a bag he was carrying suggested Hill might have been carrying a weapon. Court documents indicate the police did not find weapons on Hill.

“I knew he had a, like a satchel on him that he tried to grab,” Stayton states in one of his interviews with investigators. “So I fear that he had some type of weapon on him, whether it be a knife or a firearm. Based on all the training I’ve had in the academy and the, uh, the, the DT instructor’s courses that the department sent me to, it only takes a split second from somebody’s hands to go from here to reach down to their waistline or even midsection.”

Stayton goes on to say that he “didn’t want to give up the space,” and that the strikes were a means of gaining compliance after “the pepper ball did not work. The, uh, the
maneuvers with, um, trying to get him to the ground and try to get his hands behind his back did not work. So, the only thing that I could do at the time was strike.”

In their final conclusion of Stayton’s use of force against Hill, the detectives write, “while the strikes against [Hill] may appear unsettling, given the circumstances present that day, they are a reasonable option within the policy and practice of the Covington Police Department.”

After his encounter with Hill, Stayton notices another officer tasing Imber while a third officer, Robert Fain, holds her down.

He “grabbed by her hair and pulled her to the ground, and placed his knee on her back.” Later, he punched her once in the head “to gain compliance.”

The report also notes that Stayton had previously undergone “coaching and mentoring” for the use of open-handed strikes and hair holding to control suspects in February and June of 2023, respectively.

Upon further investigation, the detectives determined that four other officers, besides Stayton, were involved in restraining Imber when Stayton punched her. This is what finally tipped the scales into a use-of-force violation – given that everyone was piled on top of her, the punch was unnecessary.

Plus, the report states, “body-worn camera footage shows Specialist Stayton grasping a fistful of hair after she had been handcuffed. He is holding her hair at the top of her head and is captured on video saying, ‘Shut the f*** up,’ while appearing to push her head and face into the sidewalk. Civilian-recorded video corroborates this action.”

The third incident, the one for which Stayton was said to have violated the policy against unbecoming conduct, took place as Stayton and other officers, Alex Olvera-Vancini and Chris Haubner, were moving remaining demonstrators northward back to the Ohio side of the river. One woman dressed in all black clothes but wearing red shoes was allegedly going too slow for Stayton’s liking.

“During the interaction, Specialist Stayton yelled and cursed at her, including repeatedly using the word ‘f***’ after realizing he had lost his watch,” the report writes. Stayton had lost his watch during his encounter with Hill, according to court documents. “He repeatedly told her to ‘hurry up’ and shoved her multiple times without any apparent justification. Neither of the other officers involved directed similar language or physical force toward any other members of the group.”

Training

The question of training lurks in the background of this entire episode. Everyone involved – police, civilian and community member alike – has raised the issue in some form. Chief Wietholter himself said during his statement last week, “these incidents provide the department with a proactive opportunity to determine whether additional training is appropriate agency-wide.”

At one point, Stayton even tells the detectives that “he had never been trained to handle a situation like this. He stated that he never thought he would be fighting someone on the bridge. He said that he wasn’t prepared for the situation and wished that he had been trained better.”

At multiple times throughout Stayton’s interviewing process, the detectives asked him where he learned to punch and strike people to gain compliance, and he said either during the policy academy or through the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training, the state agency responsible for training recruits.

Stayton even expresses regret at some of his actions and that “looking back, he could have tried different techniques… When it comes to the female, he pushed at the end; he could have given her more time instead of pushing her.”

Stayton agreed to the 30-day suspension on Oct. 29.

You can read and download the full redacted IA report below.