Trending
WHEELING -- A simple phone call from an assistant prosecutor to her mentor was the catalyst for a federal investigation of her own brother-in-law, Brooke County Prosecutor Joseph Barki III testified Thursday in federal court.
That testimony contradicts a defense attorney's assertion that the federal deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice case against former Hancock County Sheriff's Lt. Mark Cowden, a Republican, was created by the sheriff's office to thwart Cowden's chances of unseating his former boss, Democratic Hancock County Sheriff Ralph Fletcher, in the Nov. 8 election.
Cowden, 51, is on trial in federal court in Wheeling, accused of using excessive force against a drunken driving suspect in January 2015, and falsifying related documents.
When questioned by Jarod Douglas of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of West Virginia during the third day of Cowden's trial, Barki said he "feels badly" that he passed along to William Ihlenfeld, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, information he received from Hancock County Assistant Prosecutor Allison Cowden, about an ongoing investigation into a use-of-force incident involving Mark Cowden, her brother-in-law.
"I felt badly from the get-go that I shared this information with Bill … and that I got initial details from Allison (Cowden), and that it led to a federal investigation," Barki said, noting he often discusses professional matters with Allison Cowden.
Edward Ryan, the lead FBI investigator on the case, testified that he notified the sheriff's office of the federal investigation that began after his office received what he "considers an anonymous tip" from the U.S. attorney's office.
After reviewing video footage and reports from the sheriff's office, there was enough evidence to open an investigation, he said.
The trail of information to the federal government was just one of the paths witnesses explored during testimony Thursday before a jury of five men and seven women. Witnesses also discussed the trail of blood created by injuries alleged victim Ryan Hamrick allegedly sustained during two use-of-force incidents on Jan. 27, 2015: first, when Hamrick allegedly fought West Virginia State Trooper Michael Hogar, who was trying to arrest him for DUI, and second, when Cowden allegedly used force on him while escorting him into the sheriff's office.
Hancock County Sheriff's Sgt. Eric Cline, who along with Cowden held onto one of Hamrick's shoulders as they escorted him into the sheriff's office, testified he perceived no threat from Hamrick before he "heard the dull thud of somebody being put onto the wall."
"After I heard that, I look over and see Mr. Hamrick up against the wall," Cline said, adding Cowden held the back of Hamrick's head and pushed his head back into the wall.
A use-of-force form filled out by Cowden states Hamrick tried to head-butt him and pull away from Cowden's and Cline's grips, necessitating the use of force.
However, Cline testified Thursday that Cowden's use of force was inappropriate and that he saw no threat, nor did he feel Hamrick pull away. He said Cowden's use of force exceeded a law enforcement standard of using one level of force higher than the perceived threat.
Cline said Cowden told Hamrick "that this is his house … you don't do this in our house."
Cline said there was a trail of blood coming from Hamrick after the alleged use-of-force incident by Cowden at the sheriff's office. Cline said he saw Hamrick actively bleeding, with blood dripping to the floor between his feet. It was "coming down his face and around his nose," Cline said. There was blood in the elevator as they took Hamrick to the second floor for processing, and blood dripped from Hamrick onto the floor along the 25-foot hallway to the processing room, Cline said.
But Cowden's defense attorney, Mike Nogay, argues the blood came from wounds Hamrick got earlier from the alleged fight with Hogar, that it could have been from a bloody nose that restarted with Hamrick's movements and that, while Hogar reported a new laceration above Hamrick's eye after Cowden's use of force, photos taken in the processing room do not show such a wound. Rather, they show blood coming from Hamrick's nose, and only an abrasion to his forehead that witnesses, including Cline, reported seeing directly after the initial arrest by Hogar.
At the scene of the arrest earlier that night, Cline said he saw a pool of blood where Hamrick had been lying in the snow. He also saw Hamrick's broken eyeglasses, and had taken photographs of both as evidence. Nogay asked Cline why those photos are not available for the trial.
"Well, the department phone that ended up being broken and returned to our secretary," Cline said, noting that it was broken about a month after the photos were taken.
Nogay asked Cline, "That photographic evidence was consistent with there having been a fight between the trooper and Hamrick. Yet, you never printed them out, never gave them to a superior?"
Cline replied, "No, I did not."
For example, Cline testified Thursday he felt pressured by Cowden, his boss at the time, to sign Cowden's version of his use-of-force form. Cline said he didn't even read it before signing it, because he was so shocked by the events. But during his testimony, Cline noted inconsistencies between Cowden's written account and what he saw and experienced.
Nogay asked Cline if the FBI coerced him into changing his story about why he signed the form. Among case discovery materials were transcripts that show Cline first said he willingly signed the use-of-force form.
But, after the FBI met with Cline and told him he could be a target of the investigation, as well, Cline told the grand jury he signed it because he experienced "a brain fog," and just wanted to get out of the sheriff's office to clear his head and process what he had experienced.
Cline agreed Thursday that an FBI representative told him just before he testified to the grand jury that he would be a target of the investigation, as well, but said they didn't get him to change his story. Rather, "They were telling me the alternative," he said.
Cline said he was the one who made the call to get other officers to the sheriff's office in a "show of force" for when Hamrick was brought in for processing. And he said he's seen Cowden as his mentor, ever since Cline was a "young, angry teenage boy" whom Cowden took under his wing.
The trial continues today before U.S. District Court Judge Frederick P. Stamp, with the defense expected to begin presenting its case. Nogay has said Cowden may take the stand in his own defense during the trial.