Testimony begins for jury trial of Donald Kopchak, off-duty officer who allegedly detained a man at the Buzzard's Roost Tavern

MEDINA — The alleged victim testified in the jury trial of Donald Kopchak in Judge Joyce Kimbler's courtroom on Tuesday regarding an incident where Kopchak and another off-duty officer allegedly detained him at the Buzzard's Roost Tavern. Kopchak, 41, of Brunswick, is being charged with two counts of abduction, one count of ethnic intimidation and one count of assault. Abduction and ethnic assault are felonies, while assault is a misdemeanor. The incident occurred on April 26, 2024. Yonas Bokredingil was born in Eritrea and now lives in Texas, and he has been a U.S. citizen since 2017. He is a truck driver who was delivering a load to Aldi in Hinckley when he decided to stop by the Buzzard's Roost to watch the NFL draft. Kopchak went to the Buzzard's Roost with his co-defendant Daniel Lajack, 48, of Brunswick. At the time of the incident, Kopchak was a Cleveland police officer, while Lajack worked for the Lake County Narcotics Agency, and both were deputized to serve on federal law enforcement task forces. Lajack allegedly questioned Bokredingil's citizenship status and asked for his identification. Bokredingil reportedly gave him his valid Texas driver's license. Lajack allegedly claimed it was fake and said he was going to call someone to check. Kopchak allegedly held Bokredingil by pinning his arm behind his back and took him outside. "I just keep calling, 'Please, I need help,'" Bokredingil said. "Painful, loudly, (I'm) almost crying." Then, Kopchak allegedly swept Bokredingil's legs from under him, and Kopchak held him in a leg lock until local officers arrived. Bokredingil claimed the physical altercation between him and Kopchak caused him to stop breathing and for his body to go cold. "(The incident) has affected (me) mentally, emotionally," he said. "I can't go anywhere. I lost a lot of things because of that." Bokredingil said his response to seeing Brunswick police arrive on scene was "Thank you, God." He claimed he told officers on scene that he was OK when he was not because he was afraid. "These two guys, they just came in attacking, so I feel scared," he said. "I feel like I can't go to the hospital at that moment. I feel scared. I was like shaking and everything." At the scene, local police confirmed Bokredingil had a valid driver's license and is a legal U.S. citizen. "This U.S. citizen was doing nothing but sitting in a bar," Assistant Prosecutor Scott Salisbury said. "It's the worst nightmare that a man like that can have in America. Literally, the worst nightmare. What could be worse than when you're sitting there, minding your own business, and you get accosted, and you're preyed upon because you're Black (and) you have an accent." Kopchak's attorney, Kevin Spellacy, said this case is not about how naturalized citizens are treated. Instead, he said Lajack is the reason the incident occurred, and Kopchak was doing what he was asked by another officer. "I think he is justified," Spellacy said. "He's derelict in his duty. If he doesn't support the officer that he worked for at some point in his career, and then on a task force together." In an interview in September 2024, Kopchak told police they did not have probable cause. Spellacy said Kopchak was able to do so due to hindsight. "Don Kopchak sitting here today would concede that Lajack did not have that ability, but he in the moment didn't have the ability to say no to him either," Spellacy said. "He relied on him. He made a mistake." Salisbury said Kopchak and Lajack did not have jurisdiction in Medina County, and they are not immigration officers. "I think you're going to hear things like, 'Well, that doesn't matter. If you're a cop, you're a cop 24/7,'" Salisbury said. "Well, it does matter. The state is going to take exception to that. It matters a lot. They're off duty." Julie Yelk, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Cleveland, also testified on Tuesday. She said the case came to her after another federal agency contacted the FBI, since two people involved in the incident were federal task force officers. Yelk said she believes she was not given a legitimate reason why Kopchak and Lajack did not believe Bokredingil was a truck driver from Texas. "Just because he has a Texas ID, and he isn't from here isn't the basis to run someone and get into an altercation," she said. "That was the basis for (the FBI) really opening this." In Yelk's opinion, Kopchak and Lajack did not have reasonable suspicion in this instance. "In that situation, being off duty, not having my weapon and being out of my jurisdiction, it's not my job to be there, checking IDs and trying to figure out if people are legal or not," she said. "I don't think, in that case, looking at that situation, at that moment in time, putting myself in that position, that would not have been something that I would do." Lajack originally faced the same charges as Kopchak. On Feb. 9, Lajack pleaded guilty to one count of attempted abduction, and the remaining counts were dismissed. Kopchak's trial will resume today. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.