Pittsburgh to settle some lawsuits for $170K in 2018 bar brawl between Pagans, undercover cops
The settlement will pay out $170K combined to two of the Pagan members injured and arrested in the melee
MEGAN GUZA AND LAURA ESPOSITO Pittsburgh Post-Gazette January 9, 2025
The city of Pittsburgh will pay $170,001 to settle two lawsuits connected to a 2018 bar brawl between members of the Pagan motorcycle club and several purportedly drunken Pittsburgh police officers working undercover at Kopy’s Bar on the city’s South Side.
The settlement, which must be approved by city council, will pay $100,001 to Michael Zokaites and $70,000 to the estate of Erik Heitzenrater, two of the Pagan members injured and arrested in the Oct. 12, 2018, melee. Heitzenrater died in 2022.
The pending settlements were confirmed by Marty Dietz, who represented Heitzenrater and, later, his estate.
Federal lawsuits filed by two other Pagans who were injured that night — Frank Deluca and Bruce Thomas — are set to go to trial next week. The lawsuits name the city of Pittsburgh and the four undercover narcotics detectives involved in the brawl: Brian Burgunder, David Honick, David Lincoln, and Brian Martin.
The officers were later reassigned to the police bureau’s violent crime division
Court records and witness statements indicate the officers had been at the bar since around 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11, and six members of the Pagan motorcycle club arrived about four hours later. A sworn statement from then-bar owner Stephen Kopy indicated the officers — who told him they were construction workers — took issue with the Pagans’ presence. Kopy died in 2021.
“Each time I discouraged them from taking any action,” he wrote.
Court filings in Mr. Deluca’s lawsuit allege that Detective Honick’s blood-alcohol content was 0.402% around the time of the brawl. Detective Burgunder’s is listed in the documents as 0.363%, Detective Martin’s as 0.3045% and Detective Lincoln’s as 0.140%.
A 2021 report by the Citizens Police Review Board indicate that the officers used city funds — all cash — to buy and consume dozens of drinks over the course of the night: Detective Burgunder about 19, Detective Honick between 13 and 15, Detective Martin at least 14 and Detective Lincoln consumed around seven, according to the report.
Surveillance video from inside the bar captured the hours of drinking and, eventually, the ensuing mayhem, which started when a conversation at the bar between Detective Honick and Mr. Deluca became heated. The argument rose to shoving and, from there, devolved into a massive brawl.
The footage shows Detective Lincoln punching Mr. Deluca 19 times as another officer pins him to the bar. Uniformed officers arrived at the bar soon after, deploying pepper spray at two of the detectives, several Pagans, and the bartender.
Court filings indicate the undercover officers believed their cover had been blown and the Pagans knew they were law enforcement. Kopy indicated as much in his statement, writing that Detective Honick told him about 12:20 a.m. that they were undercover officers.
“He told me that he liked me and did not want to see anything happen to my bar,” Kopy wrote. “He further stated that the situation in relation to the Bikers was dangerous and that I did not realize what was going on.”
Kopy noted that he never saw the bikers pointing at the officers, though Detective Burgunder would make that same claim again in the criminal complaints filed against the four Pagans. The District Attorney’s Office later withdrew those charges.
The criminal complaints filed against the men contained multiple discrepancies when compared to the video footage of the incident. Detectives wrote in the complaint that when they believed they’d been made by the Pagans they went back to tell them they “weren’t there to infringe on anyone’s good time.”
Police also said Heitzenrater pushed and pulled two officers off Mr. Thomas during the fight, prompting one detective to punch him multiple times. The surveillance video, however, shows Heitzenrater backing away from the officers with his hands up before approaching Mr. Thomas and briefly leaning over the man. Heitzenrater does not appear to push or pull anyone before the officer punches him.
The brawl sparked multiple investigations, both internal and external. The DA’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office both declined to prosecute the officers.
The incident also raised questions about undercover officers’ drinking on the job. Pittsburgh police, in the immediate aftermath, refused to say whether officers were allowed to drink on duty or to what extent. The bureau instituted a new policy in 2019.