Two federal officers are facing felony charges after illegally detaining a legal immigrant truck driver at a bar in Ohio.
The initial incident happened back in April of 2024 at the Buzzard’s Roost Sports Bar in Hinckley Township, Ohio. This week, one of the officers involved, Daniel Lajack, pleaded guilty. He is set to be sentenced on March 26th.
According to WKYC, deputized federal agents Daniel Lajack and Donald Kopchak were off-duty at the Buzzard’s Roost Sports Bar when they started harassing a truck driver also at the bar. The driver, who has not been named, is a legal immigrant of 14 years from East Africa. The two officers came to the conclusion that the truck driver was a threat and in the country illegally, leading them to detain him ‘Rambo-style.”
The two officers reportedly demanded identification from the truck driver and took him outside, pinning him to the ground until local law enforcement arrived. Body camera footage from a local responding officer shows the local officer condemning the federal agents’ actions.
In the body cam footage, the two officers identified themselves as agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the local officer. In reality, the two were members of task forces for the DEA and ATF, and not special agents. Kopchak was deputized with the ATF, and Lajack was a deputized DEA agent.
Later in the footage, the local officer can be heard stating “these guys have all been drinking, and then they’re like, ‘This guy [truck driver] is on some terrorist watch list.’ The guy’s got a valid CDL from Texas, but they wouldn’t let him go. They dragged him out here, held him to the ground.”
“These guys are drunk,” the local Sergeant continued, adding that he was unsure if the two men had ran the trucker’s ID through a federal database as they claimed. The truck driver in the incident was described as “very fearful” and can be seen on the ground in the body cam footage.
The pair was charged with two counts of felony abduction, one felony count of ethnic intimidation, and one misdemeanor assault count. Lajack resigned in late 2024 after receiving a notice from the Lake County Narcotics Agency where he was employed. Kopchak was placed on restricted duty by the Cleveland Division of Police and removed from his position with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives task force just after the incident. He is currently on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of the trial.
The trial for each agent was scheduled to begin on Monday, February 9th. Lajack pleaded guilty to all charges, waiving the trial. He will be sentenced on March 26th. Kopchak’s attorney filed a motion for continuation, lengthening the case.
The body cam footage can be seen below.
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