Donald Kopchak found guilty on four counts

MEDINA — After a few hours of deliberation, the jury found Donald Kopchak guilty on all four counts for an incident where he questioned a man's citizenship status and detained him at a Hinckley bar when he was an off-duty police officer on Friday. Counts one and two were abduction, count three was ethnic intimidation and count four was assault. The first three counts are felony charges while the fourth count is a misdemeanor. In his closing statement, Kopchak's attorney Kevin Spellacy said the incident should have never occurred that night, and alleged that it happened because of the actions of Daniel Lajack, who is Kopchak's co-defendant in this case. "Without Dan Lajack this doesn't happen? No, without you acting like a robot, and I stand behind that, this doesn't happen," Assistant Prosecutor Scott Salisbury said in his closing statement. "Just because your drunken buddy says something, you're just going to do it, and then hide behind your badge? Is that the world we want to live in?" Spellacy said people can be critical of Kopchak for making the wrong choice, but "he made a decision right or wrong in a split second that caused him to be sitting here." He added that Kopchak testified that he was acting as a police officer that night, and it was up for the jury to decide if that was the case. "Guess what? When you make a wrong decision, and you act on it, it's a crime or it can be a crime," Salisbury said. "In this case, it is. Was it a wrong decision? Call it that, or call it committing a crime. Right or wrong? That's the whole purpose of a trial." On April 26, 2024, Lajack, 41, of Brunswick, and Kopchak, 48, of Brunswick, were off-duty officers when they questioned Yonas Bokredingil's citizenship status and detained him when they were at the Buzzard's Roost Tavern in Hinckley. At the time of the incident, they served on law enforcement agencies outside of Medina County and were deputized to serve on federal law enforcement task forces. Kopchak is scheduled to be sentenced on June 11. Lajack originally faced similar charges to Kopchak, but he entered a guilty plea to attempted abduction, and the remainder of his charges were dropped in February. His sentencing is scheduled for Thursday. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.