A former Mount Carmel police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to use excessive force against 22 suspects in a three-year period.
Former Lt. David Donkochik, 53, faces up to 10 years in federal prison. He entered the pleas before U.S. District President Judge Matthew W. Brann in Williamsport.
A federal grand jury indicted Donkochik and fellow Mount Carmel police officers Kyle Schauer and Jonathan McHugh in June 2023 for deprivation of rights under color of law and a single count of conspiring to deprive rights under color of law.
Each was charged with the conspiracy. Donkochik was charged with four counts of deprivation, Schauer with 10 counts and McHugh with 15 counts.
Donkochik pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count. Schauer, 36, pleaded guilty to the same count on Oct. 24, 2024, and is awaiting sentencing. McHugh, 36, agreed earlier this week to plead guilty but has not formally done so, according to a plea agreement.
They face a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Mount Carmel is in Northumberland County.
The three punched, kicked, choked, Tased, beat or body slammed the suspects between 2018 and 2021, then reported they needed to use force because of the suspects, according to the indictment.
The officers charged suspects with aggravated assault, resisting arrest and other offenses “to conceal their own use of violence,” the indictment says.
They did it out of the view of video cameras and did not preserve videos that recorded their abuse, according to the indictment.
