Last month, the New Pittsburgh Courier looked at how arbitrators have the final say when police officers are disciplined for violations of the law or procedure. Sometimes, however, such violations have costs. Some are physical, involving recovery from injury, but others–even when medical consequences are minimal–are financial.
According to the Bureau of Police 2013 Annual Report, last year, 31 officers were sued in 11 different actions filed either in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court or in the U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania. Another complaint was filed with Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission.
Of the three complaints filed in Common Pleas, one involved a traffic accident, one charged false arrest/slander, and one claimed civil rights violations. Of the eight actions filed in federal court, one charged false arrest/imprisonment, one charged sexual harassment and six charged officers with excessive use of force.
Two of those cases, involving the same officer, were resolved–meaning charges against the city, the chief and officers acting in an official capacity were dismissed. In one, charges of false arrest/imprisonment against officer Adam Skewers were dismissed. In another, he was found guilty (as an individual) of sexual harassment. Another 10 cases from previous years were also resolved.
Three cases filed against in previous years were also settled in 2013. In one, a civil rights case brought by John Halbleib in 2012, the parties agreed to a non-economic settlement. In another, the city paid a $25,000 civil rights settlement to 25 individuals arrested during the 2010 G-20 summit.
In the final case, from 2008, the U.S. District Court awarded $100,000 to Jeffery Collins in his excessive force suit against officers Benjamin Freeman, Frank Rosato and Stephen Shanahan. Charges against the city and then Chief Nate Harper were dismissed in 2012.
There remained, as of Dec. 31, a total of 32 complaints, dating as far back as 2003, pending before state and federal courts and Human Relations Commission. Judgments in some of those have since been rendered–the Jordan Miles case, for instance. The city settled in 2012 for $75,000. The verdict in his false arrest/excessive force suit against the officers Saldutte, Sisak and Ewing was not rendered until March of this year—$119,000 against the officers for false arrest, but not for excessive use of force.
But that was just the beginning, last month the city agreed to pay Christine Condacure $115,000 after she was falsely imprisoned on charges entirely fabricated—and later withdrawn—by officer Anthony Scarpine.
That came just two weeks after a jury awarded Anthony Kenney $105,000 after he was pistol whipped by officer Matthew Turko during a traffic stop in 2010. All told that’s $464,000 awarded in cases of police misconduct since January of 2013, which eclipses the total amount awarded in the previous two years by more than $82,000 with four months still remaining in the calendar year.
Again however, as with any discipline, there is little that Mayor Bill Peduto or the new chief of police—who Peduto said will be in place by Labor Day—can do, even to officers whose conduct has resulted in multiple payouts, that would not be subject to reduction or dismissal through the arbitration process.
Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess, who pushed the legislation requiring data on civil actions against officers be included in bureau’s annual reports, said such settlements and verdicts could bolster the opinion among some in the community that police are out of control.
“It increases the potential for community problems at a time when we need to increase collaboration and confidence,” he said.
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
