Officers complain of abuse at academy
CHELSEA, Vt. --William Bohnyak was in good shape when he decided to fulfill a lifelong dream to work in law enforcement and enrolled at the Vermont Police Academy.
"I was working out on my own three days a week. I had a schedule for running, weightlifting and stretching," the recently elected Orange County Sheriff said. "When I entered the academy, I was at the graduation standard for physical conditioning."
What he wasn't prepared for were the "punitive physical exercises" including "bone-crusher" push-ups and others that he was ordered to do for infractions like failing to get a signature on a form or sitting down for dinner before being ordered to do so.
By his fourth morning at the academy in Pittsford, run by the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council, Bohnyak said he could not move his arms, his urine contained blood and his upper body muscles were severely swollen.
He drove himself to the Rutland Regional Medical Center and was taken by ambulance to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, where he was diagnosed as having kidney failure and a condition marked by stressed muscle fiber.
He eventually returned to the academy and earned his certification to be a full-time Vermont law enforcement officer.
But Bohnyak and L.J. "Lenny" Zenonos, the part-time police chief in North Troy who also says he required medical care after punitive exercises at the academy, later sued the institution. Bohnyak agreed to a $125,000 settlement in November. Zenonos' case is still pending.
"You go to the academy to learn the skills to be a professional police officer," Bohnyak said. "You are not there to be hammered on."
R.J. Elrick, who was appointed academy director in 2004, after the incidents involving Bohnyak and Zenonos, said theirs were the first two suits brought by recruits in the academy's 20-year history.
Elrick said if abusive practices had occurred in the past, they don't now.
"We have policies in place to prohibit any act of hazing or excessive disciplining," he said of the academy, which trains two classes of about 30 members each year. "I tell my staff and the officers that come in from other departments as trainers that when they administer any form of discipline, it has to be purposeful."
Elrick said he believes physical discipline like extra exercise is permissible so long as it doesn't become extreme. He said it might be used in cases like that of a trainee who fails to clean up a clump of dust under a bed in the academy's dorm.
"Is finding a lint ball on the floor of the room a big deal normally? No," Elrick said. "But missing a hair at a crime scene -- that is a big deal. We use every opportunity we have to drive a point like that home."
Bohnyak argued that officers also need training on the need not to become physically abusive when faced with a tough situation on the job. "You need to know how to use other means, like verbal skills," he said.
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Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com
