Another Episode Of Cops Are So F@ckin Stupid (And Corrupt)

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2 Bloomfield cops indicted after dashboard video shows them hitting suspect

Two Bloomfield police officers have been indicted on conspiracy and misconduct charges after a dashboard video from a police cruiser raised doubts about the officers' account of an arrest of a man accused of eluding police, prosecutors said.

Officers Orlando Trinidad and Sean Courter, both 33, were arraigned Friday in Superior Court in Newark on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct, tampering with public records and false swearing, Essex County prosecutors say. Trinidad also faces an aggravated assault charge.

Both officers were indicted in late January. They each pleaded not guilty and were released on their own recognizance after their court appearance Friday.

Prosecutors say the charges stem from the June 2012 arrest of 30-year-old Marcus Jeter, of Bloomfield, on charges of eluding, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer by punching him in the face.

Prosecutors dismissed charges against Jeter in April after an investigation, first reported by WABC-TV, turned up a dashboard video from one of two police cruisers that responded to the incident.

“The charges are linked to the fact that a second video came to light during the course of this investigation,” said Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

She declined to elaborate. Bloomfield police officials could not be reached for comment.

Attorneys for Jeter and one of the two officers offered differing accounts of what happened on June 7, 2012, in the period after officers arrived at Jeter’s girlfriend’s home for a report of domestic violence.

Jeter’s attorney, Stephen Brown, said one of the videos shows an officer - armed with a shotgun - circling Jeter’s car after he stopped the vehicle on the Garden State Parkway.

Brown said Jeter put his hands in the air and kept his seat belt buckled, prompting the officer to break the driver’s side window so he could unbuckle Jeter.

A second video shows a second police cruiser crossing the center median and slamming into Jeter’s car head-on, Brown said.

“When he told me that a police car rammed him, I couldn’t believe it,” Brown said. “Once we got the dashcam video from the car that rammed into Jeter’s car, they dropped the whole complaint. If it wasn’t for that second dashcam video, Jeter would be in jail today.”

The dashcam videos from the two police cars also show the officers punching Jeter and wrestling him to the ground, shouting, “Stop resisting,” Brown said.

“We don’t know why the officers became so enraged,” he said. “They had no prior encounters with him. The first time they encountered him was that night.”

Jeter had no recent arrests, according to a public records search, but was charged in 2004 with theft of headlights from nine sports utility vehicles at a dealership on Route 46 in Mount Olive. He was sentenced to 30 months probation.

Prior to the traffic stop, at around 11 p.m., Jeter’s girlfriend’s sister called police in an effort to get him to leave, Brown said.

“Jeter was leaving when the police arrived but in the police report, it says he was in the house on the second floor yelling, ‘Come and get me’ out the window,” Brown said. “The police report said that he jumped out the window and fled.”

Jeter made a left onto Passaic Avenue before heading toward the Parkway with police in pursuit, Brown said.

Brown said Jeter had consumed a couple of beers that night but denied he was intoxicated.

Trinidad’s attorney, Patrick Toscano, offered a different take on the officers’ actions.

Toscano says police reports indicate Jeter was intoxicated and fled after officers responded to the domestic violence call. “When they got there he’s jumping out the rear window,” Toscano said.

He said Jeter blew out a left rear tire taking a shortcut through the parking lot of a fast food restaurant before speeding onto the Parkway with officers in pursuit.

He said one video shows Jeter refusing the officers’ orders to get out of the car by refusing to roll down the window.

Trinidad crossed the median in his cruiser and “tapped” Jeter’s car to prevent him from escaping, Toscano said. A call over Trinidad’s police radio told him the suspect was dangerous and had eluded police, Toscano said.

He said the officers’ response was proper. “They all knew the recorders were running,” Toscano said.

Brown said the officers were the aggressors.

“When you look at the tape, the only one that was assaulted was Jeter," said Brown.

Courter’s attorney, Charles Clark, could not be reached for comment.

Courter is also facing a civil lawsuit filed by a Kearny man who claims Courter pursued “baseless” criminal charges against him in 2010 after he suspected he was trespassing on Courter’s father’s property in Kearny, according to court records.

The criminal charges were later dismissed, according to the lawsuit filed by Ryan Roemer in state Superior Court in Newark. Roemer claims Courter was armed and off-duty when he assaulted him while he was lying on the ground, the lawsuit says.

The indictments come as the upper ranks of the Bloomfield Police Department have been roiled by turmoil in recent weeks.

Two weeks ago, the department’s acting chief, James Behre, was placed on administrative leave after he spoke out at a public meeting, claiming a councilman sought favors for Hispanic officers in exchange for backing Behre’s bid for the chief’s job.

Mayor Michael Venezia claimed the forced leave was linked to Behre’s health problems, not comments aimed at Councilman Carlos Bernard.

Star-Ledger staff writer Thomas Zambito contributed to this report.

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/02/bloomfield_cops_face_misconduct_charges_after_second_dashboard_video_surfaces.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYMfAWHa5D4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQB7Ukd7gfk

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