By Mike Gangloff
The Roanoke Times
ROANOKE, Va. — Two accounts of Thomas Scott Vandegrift’s bad night began unfolding Wednesday in federal court in Roanoke. There was no disagreement that Vandegrift, then a Virginia Tech student and bartender, imbibed too much before getting behind the wheel of his car early Feb. 22, 2008.
Having drank with friends at a bar, then a party, he was trying to decide where to go next — and consulting a friend via text message — when his vehicle slid through a turn and into a Roanoke front yard. A city officer quickly arrested him for drunken driving and took him to the Roanoke City Jail.
There, Vandegrift said he was thrashed by Roanoke Sheriff’s Office deputies who kneed him in the face and grabbed his hair to slam his head repeatedly into a metal bunk, all while taunting him about needing “a wake-up call” and showing more respect to officers. He said he was left with bruises, scrapes and a strained wrist. The deputies say Vandegrift exaggerated both the extent and effect of their actions and maintain they used only a minimal, necessary amount of force when their prisoner disobeyed.
A federal jury will ultimately decide which account to believe in a trial scheduled to run through Friday. Vandegrift, now 25 and living in Salem, filed a federal civil lawsuit against Deputies Brandon Young, Kenneth Ferrell and Jewell Payne, saying they violated his civil rights.
He seeks $5 million in damages. Vandegrift said the deputies attacked him after he could not stop burping, an act that prevented an officer from administering a Breathalyzer test, which can be thrown off by belching. Vandegrift also sued Roanoke Sheriff Octavia Johnson, but that part of his lawsuit has been separated and will be considered later.
Johnson is likely to be called as a witness in this week’s trial, said Vandegrift’s attorney, John Fishwick of Roanoke. On Wednesday, attorneys on both sides repeatedly played video clips taken in the jail’s intake area. The clips showed Vandegrift begging to be allowed to go to the bathroom and an officer eventually handcuffing him to a bench.
Then, when deputies come to release Vandegrift, Payne and Ferrell begin kneeing him. There is no video of what Vandegrift said was a more serious assault that occurred soon afterward in his cell. Vandegrift testified Wednesday that he was forced to his knees in the cell. While Ferrell twisted his arm behind him, Payne kneed him in the face and Young hit him in the head. Then they threw him onto a metal bunk and Young repeatedly bashed his head into the bed frame, Vandegrift said.
The deputies stripped him of clothing and left him in only his boxers, Vandegrift said. The deputies’ attorney, Kevin Barnard of Roanoke, said the deputies used only appropriate force in the intake area after Vandegrift balled his fist and tried to pull his arm away from a deputy who was unlocking his handcuffs. Barnard said there was no assault in the cell, only a scuffle as deputies searched the prisoner.
Judge James Turk asked Vandegrift how scared he was during the attack. “I was terrified,” Vandegrift replied, adding that he did not know how long the assault would last, or the extent of his injuries. “I didn’t know what I had done to justify it.” A friend posted bond for Vandegrift on the night of his arrest.
Forensic nurse Annette Tarpley, then a Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital employee, testified that she examined Vandegrift’s injuries early the next day. She listed numerous bruises, scratches and swollen or reddened areas. But Barnard focused on discrepancies between the report Vandegrift gave the nurse and what he later said in a deposition.
Vandegrift listed more blows in the later version. And on the stand Wednesday, he said he was not struck in the left side of his head, where Tarpley’s photos showed an injury. Tarpley said that it is common for people to not be able to exactly account for how they received injuries. Barnard had Young and Payne stand up.
He asked Tarpley if the extent of Vandegrift’s injuries was consistent with a report that Payne kneed him in the face 10 times and Young slammed his head into a metal bed at least 10 times. Tarpley agreed that she would have expected more injuries to Vandegrift’s face. The trial is to continue this morning.
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