Dewey Beach police assault: Officer indicted for punching injured man

A Dewey Beach police officer faces charges of assault and official misconduct for repeatedly punching a man in the face as he lay on a stretcher, according to an indictment handed down Monday.

Officer Gregory Lynch Jr. surrendered to authorities Tuesday after the Department of Justice's civil rights division issued the indictment.

On Aug. 10, police and EMTs were dispatched near Bellevue Road to assist a 26-year-old man who had lost consciousness and injured the back of his head, according to the indictment.

The man didn't want to go to the hospital and was sitting on a stretcher with one foot on the ground as first responders and witnesses tried to convince him to lie down. Lynch grabbed his leg and put it on the stretcher, according to the indictment.

Lynch then pushed him back down and climbed onto the stretcher and repeatedly punched him in the face, causing the stretcher to rise off the ground and requiring others to hold the stretcher down to prevent it from flipping over, according to court records.

Officer Lynch then handcuffed him to the stretcher and pulled him into an ambulance by his neck, DOJ said.

The man was later treated for a broken nose, two black eyes, bruises to his neck and cuts to his face at Beebe Hospital. He also diagnosed with a concussion, the indictment said.

Lynch stated in a sworn affidavit that the man had committed strangulation and two counts of offensive touching of a law enforcement officer but witness statements contradicted those claims, DOJ said.

Witnesses at the scene say the man had put his hands up in an attempt to protect his face, but he didn't put his hands around Officer Lynch’s throat as Lynch had claimed in a sworn affidavit, DOJ said.

Lynch was released on his own recognizance.

Lynch is charged with second-degree assault, second-degree perjury and official misconduct.

In 2014, a 65-year-old man sued Dewey Beach Police saying that Lynch and another officer used excessive force when they arrested him in 2011. The department settled his federal lawsuit for $175,000.

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