ELYRIA – The assault charge against Elyria police Officer Jay Loesch – who is accused of punching a suspect handcuffed to a hospital bed – will be dropped if he completes a court-ordered diversion program.

Johnny Smith Jr., the man Loesch is accused of hitting at EMH Medical Center in Elyria on Jan. 27, asked for the charges to be dropped during both a July 31 call to Elyria police and again Thursday during a hearing in Elyria Municipal Court.

“I just want to go on with my life and I don’t want anything bad to happen to this guy,” Smith told visiting Judge Michael Weigand on Thursday.

Smith said during the call to Elyria police that he believes Loesch may need counseling to deal with the events of March 15, 2010, when Elyria police Officer James Kersetter was gunned down by Ronald Palmer while responding to a call on 18th Street.

Loesch and Officer Donald Moss shot and killed Palmer when he refused orders to surrender and charged at Loesch.

Special Prosecutor John Reulbach Jr. said that counseling and sensitivity training is exactly what Loesch would get under the diversion program, which Weigand agreed to place the veteran officer in. If Loesch successfully completes the program, the charges against him will be dropped.

According to an internal police investigation, Smith was struck by Loesch after making a comment about Kerstetter’s death while he was being treated for injuries he received during his arrest earlier in the evening of Jan. 27.

Smith – who had a blood-alcohol level of 0.355, more than four times the legal limit for driving – told officers he wished Palmer had killed more officers the night Kerstetter died.

A nurse who watched the incident on a monitor connected to a video camera in Smith’s hospital room told police that Loesch and Officer Richard Walker shut the door after the comment. She told officers that Loesch then walked over to Smith and struck him once on the left side of his face.

Although Smith has said the blow nearly knocked him unconscious, Walker told police it wouldn’t have harmed his 10-year-old and was meant to get Smith’s attention.

“I didn’t deserve everything, but I deserved what he did to me,” Smith said during his call to police last month. “So I would just like to make right. I’m trying to be a better person.”

Smith apologized to Loesch on Thursday for the comment.

“I made an inappropriate comment, which was totally out of line and I’d like to apologize to you again,” Smith said during the hearing. “I forgive you. I hope you forgive me for what I said.”

“I appreciate it, man,” Loesch replied.

Following an internal police investigation Loesch was given a 10-day suspension for the incident, although he served only five days of it. He won’t have to serve the remaining five days if he doesn’t get in any further trouble for a year.

The city’s insurance company paid Smith $50,000 to avoid a lawsuit he had planned to file.

Loesch declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing, but his lawyer, Bob Phillips, said he believed justice was served in the case.

“He, too, is sorry that happened,” Phillips told Weigand. “In that sense we can forgive and forget and move forward.”

Before he was taken to the hospital on Jan. 27, Smith was arrested after police were called to Apples grocery store when Jeff Marcum stole beer and steaks and loaded them in the cab of the tractor-trailer Smith was driving.

Elyria police tracked the truck to a nearby parking lot and tried to get the men to get out. According to police reports, Smith nearly ran over Officer James Rider as he was trying to flag down the truck. Smith, however, insists he didn’t see Rider.

Police surrounded the truck on Cleveland Street and ordered the men out of the truck. Smith refused to get out, according to officers, who reported they had to forcibly remove him.

After he was pulled from the truck, Smith continued to struggle with officers until he was subdued and handcuffed, officers and witnesses said. Smith has said that he wasn’t resisting and was beaten by officers and that Rider struck him twice in the head with a flashlight.

The internal police probe and Reulbach’s investigation determined the allegations against Rider and other officers didn’t have any merit.

Marcum pleaded no contest to theft in the case, while Smith pleaded out to charges of failure to comply, obstructing official business and DUI. He served six months in the county jail before being released on probation in July.

Smith was arrested again earlier this month after testing positive for cocaine. Elyria Municipal Court Judge Lisa Locke Graves ordered him to serve a 120-day jail sentence because the failed drug test violated the terms of a plea agreement in a 2010 case in which he pleaded no contest to attempted unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Smith is due back before Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery next month for allegedly violating the conditions of his probation in the case stemming from his January arrest after testing positive for cocaine.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.