Pennsylvania State Trooper Found Guilty of Assault and Official Oppression

Feb 28

Posted by

pa-trooper

Trooper Ryan Luckenbaugh (left) Christopher Siennick (right)

A jury convicted suspended state Trooper Ryan Luckenbaugh for simple assault and official oppression.  It began when Luckenbaugh kicked a handcuffed Harrisburg man in the face.

Christopher Siennick was riding his skate board on May 16, 2015 when Luckenbaugh and his partner, Trooper Michael Trotta drove past Christopher, who gave them the finger.

Penn Live reports that Luckenbaugh and Trotta chased Christopher, tased, pepper sprayed, and handcuffed him.  Christopher’s mouth was running with saliva in reaction to the pepper spray.  When spittal fell on Luckenbaugh’s shoes, he responded by saying, “Spit on this” and he kicked Christopher in the face.   At Luckenbaugh’s trial, Senior Deputy District Attorney Stephen Zawisky said, “Certainly, Trooper Luckenbaugh knew he couldn’t kick a handcuffed man in the head.”

The incident was caught on dash cam.

It didn’t stop with the kick to Christopher’s head.  Luckenbaugh filed an arrest warrant that alleged that Christopher ignored his verbal commands to get off the street, and threw something that hit his cruiser.  Christopher spent two weeks in jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Harrisburg police officers intervened to stop the abuse and contacted the District Attorney’s office that prompted the investigation into Luckenbaugh’s actions.  The dash cam recording shows that both of Luckenbaugh’s claims are not true.

Christopher is known in the area as a local activist.  At trial, defense attorney Edward Spreha Jr. called Christopher  “the local leftist”. countered.

It took the jury 45 minutes to decide the verdict.   Christopher Siennick had a one-word reaction to the verdict. “Cowabunga!” he said.

Luckenbaugh’s sentencing is scheduled for April.  Senior Deputy District Attorney Stephen Zawisky said he’ll probably seek jail time.

Luckenbaug’s partner, Trooper Michael Trotta, was terminated for misconduct.

 

 

Posted on 02/28/2017, in Cases, Christopher Siennick, Cops Gone Wild, Good Cops and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 19 Comments.

  1. Mr. Militant Negro | 02/28/2017 at 7:50 am

    Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • Xena | 02/28/2017 at 8:05 am

      Good morning, Mr. Militant Negro, and thanks for the reblog, dear friend.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
      • Mr. Militant Negro | 02/28/2017 at 8:21 am

        Good Morning Ms. Xena, good to see you. Enjoy your week.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply
        • Xena | 03/01/2017 at 5:43 pm

          Mr. Militant Negro,
          Hope all is well on your side of the great pond. I heard there were earthquakes. On another subject, where is everyone? Out of more than 200 blogs I follow, only about 6 are active.

          Liked by 2 people

          Reply
          • Mr. Militant Negro | 03/02/2017 at 11:12 am

            That I don’t know, maybe people are taking a break from blogging? I have learned to slow down a bit a couple of days a week, even tho I feel guilty when I am not posting 30 times a day. Maybe other bloggers are slowing down?

            I stopped following a handful of bloggers because they acted like assholes when Trump won in November, so I unfollowed ’em and stopped receiving their dumbfuckery in my mailbox.

            How have you been?

            Liked by 2 people

          • Xena | 03/02/2017 at 2:20 pm

            Hey Mr. Militant Negro! We had temps in the 70’s, then it snowed. I now have a cold. (sniff, sniff) I’m under the impression that the political situation in this country is happening so fast that many bloggers are just trying to keep up. By the time we think we’re writing about one thing that happened with Trump, something else is reported. I’ve mostly reblogged posts about it. The cold pills make me drowsy but hopefully I’ll be able to write tomorrow.

            Liked by 1 person

          • yahtzeebutterfly | 03/03/2017 at 12:01 pm

            Sorry to hear that you have a cold, Xena. I hope you are feeling better today.

            Liked by 2 people

          • Xena | 03/03/2017 at 4:08 pm

            Thanks, Yahtzee. The cold tablets make me drowsy so I’m moving slow. This afternoon when booted up the computer, it had some problems (nothing serious) and they are fixed now, so I can get back to work. 🙂

            Liked by 2 people

  2. livesaneblog | 02/28/2017 at 12:27 pm

    Haaa! Does anybody else notice how many times the cops glance nervously at the dash cam after the cop assault?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • Xena | 03/01/2017 at 2:29 am

      Livesandblog,
      I hadn’t noticed, but it doesn’t surprise me. As we have seen, even with dash cam or video otherwise, juries seldom go by what they see and depend on what the allegedly offending officer says about THEIR reason. In this case, the trooper could not justify kicking a handcuffed man in the face.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
    • mindyme62 | 03/01/2017 at 8:48 pm

      And it seemed to me that the other officer was purposefully standing at the front corner of the car as if to block the view of the camera.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  3. Gronda Morin | 03/01/2017 at 11:08 am

    Dear Xena,

    Let’s see what the jail time looks like and thank God for video dash cams.AND thank goodness for the Harrisburg police officers who intervened instead of hiding behind the “Blue Wall.”

    Hugs, Gronda

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  4. yahtzeebutterfly | 03/01/2017 at 8:35 pm

    Thanks for bringing this case to our attention, Xena.

    Christopher received justice.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  5. mindyme62 | 03/01/2017 at 8:50 pm

    Even when they know they are being recorded they still have faith there will be little if any consequence. UGH. It makes them all look bad. Thank goodness for the officers who intervened.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  6. fofllc | 04/02/2017 at 11:08 pm

    Cops like this should be stripped of their badges and thrown in jail. What’s the point of kicking a person who is already in handcuffs and pose no threat? This is sad but there are a lot of cases like this that goes unnoticed or swept under the rug because Police departments choose to protect their own instead of standing for what’s right and ethical. I hope I live to see the day when this becomes a common practice in the world.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Join the discussion