Dennis Henderson, the 38-year-old
teacher from North Side whose run-in with Pittsburgh police Officer Jonathan
Gromek is the subject of the lawsuit, said Tuesday that his arrest was tough to
explain to his 9-year-old daughter as well as his students.
"I've worked hard to stay
out of the system," Mr. Henderson said at a news conference announcing the
lawsuit. "There just shouldn't be a reason my daughter should have to
answer to her peers on why her dad was on TV in handcuffs."
He said he also had to explain it
to his students, some of whom have heard him lecture them on how to behave in
an encounter with police. He recounted that a student said to him, "You
did everything you tell us to do, and you got slammed."
Mr. Henderson, with help from the
American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and attorney Glen Downey,
accused Officer Gromek of violating his rights to free speech, freedom from
unlawful search and seizure and due process.
The Manchester Academy Charter
School teacher said that he left a meeting at the Community Empowerment
Association, which dealt with efforts to improve relations with police, to give
his business card to journalist Rossano Stewart outside.
He said that Officer Gromek sped
by, veering so close that the two "had to press ourselves against the car
to avoid being struck by the vehicle." Mr. Henderson said he exclaimed
"Wow!" and the officer turned the car around and "posed the
question if I had a problem with his driving."
Officer Gromek, who did not
respond to a request for comment, wrote in criminal court documents that he
turned around because he saw Mr. Henderson shouting when he glanced in his rear-view
mirror.
Mr. Henderson said he asked
Officer Gromek for his name and badge number. He also said that he would record
the encounter on his phone. "I refused to give him my phone, and at that
point he said, 'Put your hands behind your back,' " said Mr. Henderson.
Mr. Henderson said he was
handcuffed and told "if I don't get down, he's going to put me down,"
after which the officer swept him to the ground.
Officer Gromek wrote in criminal
court documents that Mr. Henderson had been becoming "visibly angry"
and "I believed he may have been trying to contact more people to come on
scene which would prove to be a safety risk for me, so I instructed him to put
away his phone."
Mr. Henderson said the reporter
with him, Mr. Stewart, was briefly handcuffed but released when one of 10 to 15
officers who arrived later realized he was with the media.
Mr. Henderson was jailed for
around 12 hours and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and
obstruction of highways -- all of which were withdrawn by Allegheny County
District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. A spokesman for Mr. Zappala said
Tuesday that the office has no plans to re-file the charges.
Mr. Henderson said he believed
the white officer sought to intimidate him because he is black.
"If it wasn't racial, I
don't know what it was then," Mr. Henderson said. "I don't know if
that's the normal practice in Squirrel Hill or anywhere else."
"Simply being a black man in
a black neighborhood doesn't give police probable cause to stop you, but
unfortunately too many of our officers think it does," said ACLU attorney
Sara Rose.
Sgt. Michael LaPorte, president
of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1, rejected that characterization.
"That is as ridiculous as
the ACLU has come," Sgt. LaPorte said. "If you have a neighborhood
that is 98 percent black, what type of people should you be pulling over,
purple?"
Homewood is around 95 percent
African American. Around 26 percent of Pittsburgh's population is black, and
around 2.5 percent report more than one race.
Data released by the bureau
indicates that in 2012, 51.1 percent of people subjected to field contacts or
warrantless searches were black men, and 8.4 percent were black women.
"We pull over people based
off violations of the law," Sgt. LaPorte said. "We don't do it based
off arbitrary facts.
"I have no comment on Gromek
in particular other than nothing that he did was unreasonable," he said.
Attorney Bryan Campbell, who
often represents city police officers accused in civil lawsuits, declined
comment.
The lawsuit seeks damages and
attorney fees. The city is not named as a defendant, but Ms. Rose said the
attorneys are "exploring whether any [bureau] higher-ups should be
named."
The city typically pays
settlements or verdicts against its officers. Acting police Chief Regina
McDonald declined comment.
Ms. Rose said she hoped to talk
with city leaders about policing in minority communities, although that might
not occur until the mediation phase of the case. She said the existence of a
partial audio recording of the incident should help to document the incident,
taking it beyond the realm of he-said-she-said cases.
The city's Office of Municipal
Investigations sustained accusations against Officer Gromek of conduct toward
the public, conduct unbecoming and incompetency. A bureau disciplinary hearing
is set for Tuesday.
The Citizen Police Review Board
plans to set a date for a public hearing on the matter at its Dec. 3 meeting.
Officer Gromek, 30, joined the
force in September 2005 and was scheduled to earn $59,587.42 this year. Since
Mr. Henderson's arrest, he has been reassigned from Zone 5 to the bureau's
warrant office.
"I don't want to see him on
the streets," Mr. Henderson said.
Rich Lord:
rlord@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1542 or on Twitter @richelord. Liz Navratil:
lnavratil@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1438 or on Twitter @LizNavratil First
Published November 19, 2013 12:53 PM
