Update: Two RPD cops sued, accused of lying in police arrest report

Posted at: 07/26/2012 1:49 PM | Updated at: 07/26/2012 7:25 PM
By: Berkeley Brean | WHEC.com

Two Rochester Police officers are named in a lawsuit that accuses them of lying in their police report about why they stopped a car that lead to an arrest. The lawsuit says city traffic cameras proves the case.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday, July 19th in the Monroe County Clerk's office. It names the City of Rochester, the Rochester Police Department and Officer Rob Osipovitch and Officer Ryan Hartley as defendants.

The suit accuses the officers of lying in their police report about why they had cause to pull over the car driven by the plaintiff, Jeramie Barideaux. According to the suit, the officers said Mr. Barideaux rolled through a stop sign at the corner of Avenue D and Conkey Avenue in July 2011. The officers then searched Barideaux's car and they say found drugs and a weapon. He was charged with failure to stop, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana.

But then Mr. Barideaux's attorney John Parrinello discovered a video tape he says cleared his client.

Click here to watch the video from the City Traffic Cam

Click here to watch our explanation from the corner of Conkey Avenue and Avenue D

It was a city owned traffic camera placed at the intersection of Avenue D and Conkey Avenue. According to the lawsuit, the video tape shows Barideaux's car coming to a complete stop. The case was in front of County Court Judge Daniel Doyle. The lawsuit quotes Judge Doyle saying in court, "based upon the review of the video, there's no ambiguity at all that a car being operated... (by Jeramie Barideaux) did come to a complete stop before the police stopped the vehicle."

Judge Doyle dismissed the case against Mr. Barideaux saying "it was an unreasonable stop... Based upon the suppressing of the evidence, the Court is going to dismiss the indictment."

Mr. Barideaux spent four months in jail because of the arrest.

The lawsuit says the officers "lied in their sworn police reports" and "upon information and belief, the Defendant police officers committed perjury concerning the stop of Plaintiff's vehicle in front of a Monroe County Grand Jury."

"A picture is worth a thousand words," said Barideaux's attorney John Parrinello. "I know (the police) have a dangerous job, but you can't have them on the streets making arrests and making up reasons to stop people."

"I mean that threatens everybody's safety and the constitution forbids it," Parrinello said.

The lawsuit says Mr. Barideaux suffered "humiliation, ridicule and disgrace" and was "psychologically, physically and economically injured and damaged."

In terms of money, Mr. Parrinello told their city he is seeking somewhere between $300,000 and $320,000. (That is a calculation Mr. Parrinello made based on a comment from a city attorney who told the Democrat and Chronicle in an unrelated story that verdicts in these kinds of cases can  "run as high as $1 million dollars per year in of incarceration." Mr. Barideaux spent a little under four months in jail.)

News10NBC has alerted City Hall, the Rochester Police Department and the officer's union, the Locust Club, about the lawsuit. As is customary, RPD spokesman Sgt. Justin Collins replied in an email that the department does not comment on pending litigation. "With this case in the litigation stages we are not going to be able to comment on it at this time," wrote Sgt. Collins. "We will be happy to provide you with any additional information on this as soon as this portion has concluded."

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