Bucyrus man found guilty of assault on two officers

BUCYRUS - Local resident Mathew Kunzer was found guilty of two counts of assault on a peace officer on Thursday afternoon.

Kunzer was found guilty earlier this month of 10 felony counts of intimidation, five felony counts of retaliation, three misdemeanor counts of aggravated menacing and one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest, according to a press release.

The two counts of assault on a peace officer are both felonies of the fourth degree. A 12-member Crawford County jury took only 27 minutes to deliberate in Crawford County Common Pleas Court. 

Kunzer was represented by Bucyrus attorney, Andrew Motter and special persecutors Micah Ault and Christian Stickan represented the State of Ohio during the proceedings. Kunzer did not testify on his own behalf during the trial.

During the proceedings, the state called Deputy Mark Landis to the stand. Landis said that he encountered the defendant at around lunch time on the day the altercation occurred. He said that Kunzer had gotten into a fight with another inmate. Landis said that Kunzer was placed into a cell and separated from the other inmate. 

"About an hour later, I went in and talked to inmate Kunzer," he said. 

Landis said that he told Kunzer that he would not be charged for the incident because he was not the aggressor. Kunzer was placed under lock down. Landis explained that lock down was a standard procedure and required the inmates to be separated from the general population for 23 hours out of a day after a physical altercation, before a hearing with the jail administrator. 

Later on, Landis preformed a security check of the area with Sgt. Tyson Estrada, a shift supervisor who arrived at 3 p.m. Estrada said that he went to issue Kunzer his lock down form when he started shouting expletives at him.

During this time, Landis was moving a green tote with commissary items from the other inmate's cell. Kunzer saw the items and demanded them. Estrada said that he asked Kunzer multiple times to calm down, that they could sit on his bed and talk about the incident and that Kunzer refused to follow instruction. 

Estrada then asked Landis to open the door to Kunzer's cell. Estrada then grabbed Kunzer by the collar and proceeded to lead him to the booking area. Estrada had gotten him to the back of his cell, where Landis put one handcuff on him and things began to escalate from there.

"This was the first incident where I was not able to calm him down," Estrada said during his testimony.

Estrada was knocked into a desk and Kunzer put Estrada into a choke hold, which restricted his breathing, according to Landis. Landis climbed on Kunzer's back to free Estrada.

Deputy Casey Barnett, came into the cell to assist after he felt that Estrada was in serious trouble and punched Kunzer in the face until they were able to get him down and the other handcuff on.

Kunzer was then moved to the booking area and placed in the restraint chair, according to Landis.

Neither party suffered life threatening injuries and both were taken to the hospital to get treatment.

All of the above officers were called on to the witness stand by the state. In cross examination, Motter noted that Landis's report didn't mention that Kunzer threw punches.

He also called Kent Rachel, the commander of the Crawford County Jail to the stand and inquired about proper procedures and did mention the fact that security camera footage, which no longer existed, should have been saved.

Crawford County Common Pleas Judge Sean Leuthold said that he would wait until the pre-sentence investigation comes in as well as a psychiatric evaluation before he would sentence Kunzer. A date for sentencing has not yet been set.