- Police Brutality Watch

An Athens man beaten by Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers during a traffic stop has gotten a $10,000 settlement in a defamation suit against an OSHP official. As part of the settlement, the agency will send a letter to the editor to The Athens Messenger, apologizing for statements made about plaintiff Billy J. Dunfee by a Patrol officer in an earlier letter published by the newspaper. Dunfee, 47, sued three Patrol officers in April 2002, starting the case in Athens County Common Pleas Court before it was transferred to U.S. District Court. His suit was based on a January 2002 incident, in which troopers stopped the car in which he was riding as a passenger on U.S. Rt. 33, for making an illegal U-turn across the highway divider, then beat, kicked, clubbed and maced Dunfee after he allegedly refused to keep his hands in sight and step out of the car. Though in March 2004 a jury in Athens County Municipal Court found Dunfee innocent of resisting arrest, he lost his federal lawsuit nine months later, when a jury ruled that the troopers had sufficient justification for pulling him out of the car, and did not use excessive force to subdue him. [more]