Rochester, the former New York police chief, alleges that the city’s mayor pressured him to lie about her handling of the police’s murder of Daniel Prude, which was kept from the public for six months, and that she fired him because he refused to do so.
La’Ron Singletary, terminated in September after announcing plans to retire, says in legal documents released on Wednesday that Mayor Lovely Warren urged him to omit facts and provide false information to support her claim that she It wasn’t until months later that the Key learned details of the March 23 encounter that led to Prude’s death from asphyxiation.
Singletary wrote in the papers – a notice of claim sent to town as a precursor to a lawsuit – that Warren was especially concerned that his testimony before a city council panel investigating Prude’s death would undermine her repeated claims that the then chief information was hidden from her.
Singletary wrote that those allegations made by Warren at news conferences and in TV interviews after news of Prude’s death went public in September were false, slandered his character, and damaged his reputation as a heartfelt law enforcement officer.
Warren said Singletary initially told her Prude’s death was a drug overdose.
Singletary wrote in his claim that he texted her that Prude was “probably high on PCP,” but that he gave her additional information on April 13 when the medical examiner ruled that Prude’s death was a murder.
City spokesman Bridgette Burch White said in a statement that Rochester will “fully defend taxpayers against this frivolous lawsuit.”
She added that Singletary’s version of the events corroborates Warren’s claim that the former chief never showed camera footage of her body from the agents involved in Prude’s arrest and that she didn’t see it until August, when a city attorney told her. provided.
Burch White said this was “a fact that Mr. Singletary has so far refused to acknowledge.”
Singletary’s notice of claim, sent to the city on December 3, was included as evidence in the City Council’s judicial petition on Tuesday to enforce a subpoena to give him testimony and provide documents for his investigation into Prude’s death. .
Singletary did not specify the monetary damages he is seeking from the city, but he noted that his resignation on September 14 had cost him the lifelong health benefits he would have received had he been allowed to retire on September 29.
Also on Tuesday, the city’s public integrity office released a report that concluded it found no ethical flaws in the way Warren or senior staff responded to Prude’s death. Another investigation, opened by Attorney General Letitia James’s office in April, is underway.
Prude’s death did not receive public attention until his family released police camera video and written reports on September 2, which they obtained through a request for public records.
The video showed Prude, who had been having a definite mental health crisis, handcuffed and naked with a spit hood over his head. An officer was shown pushing his face against the icy ground while another officer pressed a knee against his back.
The officers held him for about two minutes until he stopped breathing. He was called out and died a week later.
News of Prude’s death sparked weeks of protests, calling for Warren to step down. The Democrat for the second term has stayed in office after pleading not guilty to an unrelated charge for violating campaign finance and fraud rules in October.
Meanwhile, Prude’s family filed a federal lawsuit claiming police wanted to hide the true nature of his death.
In October, Rochester released emails urging city officials not to publicly release the camera footage of Prude’s death because they feared violent backlash if the video came out during nationwide protests over police’s murder of George Floyd.
Deputy Chief Mark Simmons quoted the “current climate” in the city and the nation in an email on June 4 advising Singletary to put pressure on the city’s attorneys to remove the public records of a Prude family attorney. reject images. Simmons wrote that he feared people would “misinterpret the officers’ actions and merge this incident with recent murders of unarmed black men by the national police.”
Singletary wrote in his notice of claim that in light of the email from Simmons, city officials called a staff meeting and that Warren’s communications director asked him on June 10 to suspend work on the Prude camera footage and instead turn to another matter. .