EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated with the findings of an internal police review of the use of force.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An internal Allentown police review found that officers were justified in their use of force against a man whose videotaped arrest showed him being beaten with a baton and shocked with a Taser while handcuffed.
The Allentown Police Department released the finding Monday afternoon, hours after a LehighValleyNews.com report that contained the video shot by Alexus Ibbetson.
Ibbetson has a son with 29-year-old Michael Iucolino, the man arrested in the video after police were summoned to their home Saturday night in the 200 block of North 16th Street for a reported domestic disturbance.
Ibbetson claimed police used excessive force as they beat Iucolino’s right leg with a baton then shocked him with a Taser as he lay on the sidewalk handcuffed behind his back.
But in a statement Monday, police Capt. Kyle Pammer said Iucolino tripped an officer and had the officer’s leg locked in his own legs and wouldn’t let go while they were on the ground.
“Officers then had to implement several uses of force including baton strikes and a Taser to stop Mr. Iucolino’s attack on the officer,” said Pammer, the department’s captain of administration. “At that point, officers were able to control Mr. Iucolino and escort him from the scene.”
"The way that they beat him was just not OK.”Alexus Ibbetson, who recorded video of the arrest of Michael Iucolino
The video shows officers picking up Iucolino from the ground and hauling him to a police van. He was charged with resisting arrest and two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer.
A district judge ordered Iucolino to Lehigh County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail. Ibbetson, 27, could not immediately be reached for comment on the police findings.
Pammer said the police department’s Use of Force Review Board investigated and the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office approved the charges. The review board is comprised of a certified use-of-force instructor from the department and at least two captains, he said.
“There will be no further comment at this time regarding this investigation,” Pammer’s statement said.
The video recording shows a police officer delivering seven blows to Iucolino’s right leg as three other officers surrounded him.
One of the other officers appears to be holding a Taser that fired while Iucolino remained on the ground, handcuffed behind his back, moments after being repeatedly struck.
“Whoever those cops were, they need to be reprimanded in every possible way,” Ibbetson had said previously. She and Iucolino have a 4-year-old son.
“He was not moving and they proceeded to Tase him and then one of the other officers brought out a baton and started hitting him excessively, then they picked him up and threw him in the van. The way that they beat him was just not OK.”
Police said they were called to the home about 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
A police account of the arrest in court records says Iucolino wrapped both his legs around an officer's leg and brought the officer to the ground as Iucolino was being carried out of the apartment.
“This incident will be reviewed in its entirety.”Capt. Kyle Pammer, Allentown Police Department
Police ordered Iucolino several times to release the officer's leg but he did not, according to the arrest affidavit. That's when another officer used his baton on Iucolino, who still had his legs wrapped around the other officer, according to police.
The officer whose leg was wrapped up deployed his Taser and Iucolino released him, police said.
Pammer told LehighValleyNews on Sunday that the department would review the incident.
“As in every incident that requires force to be used, the Allentown Police Department reviews the incident in its entirety to determine if the amount of force used was justified,” he said in an email. “This incident will be reviewed in its entirety.”
Domestic dispute
Ibbetson said she and Iucolino were arguing Saturday night and someone called police to respond to a domestic disturbance. Police who arrived at the home knocked and then quickly burst inside, according to Ibbetson.
“They knocked two times. It was bang, bang and then they opened up the door and came rushing in,” she said.
Police said a caller reported his sister was involved in a domestic dispute with an intoxicated man. When they arrived, they heard yelling coming from the apartment and a woman saying "Mike, get off me," according to the arrest affidavit.
Police entered through the unlocked door and announced their presence, believing a woman was being harmed, they said.
Iucolino was holding the couple’s 4-year-old when the officers approached him inside, according to Ibbetson.
“Two or three of the officers tried to arrest him without giving him any reason why,” she said. “He was holding the child and just kept asking why they entered the home without a warrant or what was their reasoning.
“When they went to grab his hand he was holding our son. They said he tried to slap their hand away. I did not see him do that.”
Ibbetson said police took Iucolino to the floor.
“I was screaming for them to get off of him and they were refusing to do so. I had to pry my child off him,” she said.
In the Monday afternoon statement, Pammer said Iucolino struck an officer twice after he was approached inside the apartment.
"After a short struggle, officers placed Mr. Iucolino into custody," he said. "Even after he was handcuffed, Mr. Iucolino continued to be an assailant throughout the entire encounter."
'Very unneeded'
On the floor of the apartment, police handcuffed Iucolino as he screamed at them that they needed a warrant and should get out of the house.
Two officers carried Iucolino down a flight of stairs and out the front door as he continued hollering, Ibbetson said, and one of the officers stomped on his legs as they exited the apartment onto the porch.
Said Pammer: "While trying to escort him out of the residence, Mr. Iucolino was actively kicking officers. Additional responding officers arrived on scene and assisted in bringing Mr. Iucolino out of the residence."
Iucolino refused to get up and walk and laid on his side on the sidewalk in front of the home before the video shows police striking him multiple times, Ibbetson said.
The video shows him yelling that he was hit in the chest by the Taser's probes.
“I’ve never seen anybody with that excessive force before. It was very unneeded,” Ibbetson said. “I’m not going to stop personally until I see justice and they get what they deserve.”
A preliminary hearing on the charges against Iucolino is set for July 1 in district court.
Court records show Iucolino pleaded guilty to simple assault and was sentenced to up to 24 months’ probation in March stemming from an arrest in January 2023 in Hereford Township, Berks County.
He has had numerous brushes with the law in Bucks, Berks and Montgomery counties, according to state court records.
