• Home
  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Authors
  • Advertise
  • Categories
    • Archives
    • Chaplain
    • Crime & Controversy
    • Community
    • Cop Humor
    • Editorial
    • Op-ed
    • Gear & Technology
    • Investigations
    • Laws & Legal
    • Leadership
    • News
    • Officer Down
    • On Duty
    • Tactics
  • Network
    • Illinois Network
    • Minneapolis Network
    • Tulsa Network
    • Wauwatosa Network
No Result
View All Result
Law Officer
Law Officer
No Result
View All Result

Former Rochester chief says he was fired for refusing to lie for the mayor

December 18, 2020
Law OfficerbyLaw Officer
in Laws & Legal, Leadership, News
Rochester Chief

Former Rochester Chief La'Ron Singletary (Twitter)

1k
SHARES
4.5k
VIEWS
Share and speak up for justice, law & order...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The former Rochester police chief who was terminated in connection with the department’s response to the death of Daniel Prude revealed the city’s mayor pushed him to lie about her handling of the investigation – and claimed he was ousted when he refused to do so, recently filed court papers show.

“I repeatedly refused to lie for Mayor Warren.”

— Former Rochester Police Chief La’Ron Singletary 

La’Ron Singletary, who was fired from the Rochester Police Department (RPD) in September shortly after announcing his plans to retire, on Wednesday filed a notice of claim with the Monroe Court Clerk’s office announcing his intention to sue Mayor Lovely Warren and the city for defamation of character, the creation of a hostile work environment and his “wrongful and retaliatory termination,” according to the documents, Fox News reported.

  • ROCHESTER POLICE CHIEF RELIEVED OF DUTY SHORTLY AFTER ANNOUNCING RETIREMENT

Singletary alleged Warren and other city officials who were acting on her behalf “impugned my performance as Chief of Police of the City of Rochester by making false statements and material omissions about my performance and discharge of duties in the matter of the treatment of Daniel Prude in the custody of the Rochester Police, his subsequent death, the internal investigations conducted by the Rochester Police Department and my communication with Mayor Warren and other city officials.”

“I repeatedly refused to lie for Mayor Warren,” he wrote in the court papers.

Singletary alleged that Warren urged him to omit facts and give false information to back her claim that it wasn’t until months later that she learned key details of the March 23 encounter that led to Prude’s death.

He wrote that Warren was especially worried that his testimony before a city council panel investigating Prude’s death would undermine her repeated assertions that the then-chief hid information from her.

Lovely Warren
Mayor Lovely Warren (Wikipedia Commons)

Singletary wrote that those assertions, which Warren made at news conferences and in TV interviews after news of Prude’s death became public in September, were false, defamed his character and harmed his reputation as an upstanding law enforcement official.

“[T]he Mayor wanted me to portray a story that just was not true and asking (sic) that I omit certain relevant facts when I testified before the City Council investigation of the Daniel Prude matter,” the court filing states.

Singletary went on to explain that during a meeting with Warren on Sept. 7, the mayor told him she would “never” ask him to lie but then urged him not to mention her knowledge that police officers were physically involved with Prude.

“The Mayor further asked me to omit the specifies of our conversation when I discussed the details of the Medical Examiner’s report and instead testify that the Medical Examiner’s report was mentioned only in passing and to further testify that, in hindsight, I should not have told the Mayor ‘in passing by the elevator,'” court papers state. “The Mayor then asked me to recite what I would say in my testimony … I had text messages and emails indicating there have been conversations and communications with the Mayor and her administration. I repeated that my integrity means too much to me and that I would never lie for anyone.”

  • NEIGHBORING DA RIPS LA COUNTY DA OVER CRIMINAL-FRIENDLY POLICIES

Warren said Singletary initially told her Prude’s death was a drug overdose.

Singletary wrote in his notice of claim that he told her in a text message that Prude was “likely high on PCP” but that he updated her with additional information on April 13 when the medical examiner ruled Prude’s death was a homicide.

A city spokesperson, Bridgette Burch White, said in a statement that Rochester will “fully defend taxpayers against this frivolous suit.”

She added that Singletary’s version of events confirms Warren’s claim that the former chief never showed her body camera footage from the officers involved in Prude’s arrest and that she only saw it in August when a city lawyer provided it to her.

Burch White said that was “a fact that Mr. Singletary refused to acknowledge until now.”

Prude, 41, died roughly one week after his early encounter with police on March 23, but his name and death did not become national news until September when a video of the incident was made public by Prude’s family.

A medical examiner concluded that Prude’s death was a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.” The report lists excited delirium and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP, as contributing factors.

  • MASSACHUSETTS OFFICER RESIGNS AFTER SWASTIKA INCIDENT

Singletary’s notice of claim, sent to the city on Dec. 3, was included Tuesday as an exhibit in the city council’s court petition seeking to enforce a subpoena for him to testify and provide documents for its investigation into Prude’s death.

Singletary didn’t specify the monetary damages he’s seeking from the city, but he noted that his Sept. 14 firing cost him the lifetime health benefits he would have received had he been allowed to retire on Sept. 29 as originally planned, Fox reported.

Also Tuesday, the city’s public integrity office issued a report concluding that it found no ethical lapses in the way Warren or senior staff responded to Prude’s death. Another probe was opened in April by the office of state Attorney General Letitia James.

Lawyers representing the seven Rochester police officers suspended with pay during an investigation into the death of Daniel Prude said in October that events leading up to the man’s death were not being portrayed fully.

At the end of October, an attorney leading a Rochester City Council investigation into Prude’s death accused Singletary of refusing to cooperate with the probe.

 


Share and speak up for justice, law & order...
Tags: Daniel PrudeLa’Ron SingletaryMayor Lovely WarrenRochester Police Department
Law Officer

Law Officer

Law Officer is the only major law enforcement publication and website owned and operated by law enforcement—for law enforcement and supporters of justice, law, and order. This unique facet makes Law Officer much more than just a publishing company, but a true advocate for the law enforcement profession.

Law Officer Badge Blue

Donate & Help Support Law Officer

Donate now and help support justice, law & order
Your donation is tax-deductible.

Related Posts

Rochester teens

Rochester teens charged with setting man on fire inside his apartment

March 17, 2021
1.6k
Lovely Warren

Report: Rochester Mayor lied following Daniel Prude death

March 14, 2021
3.1k
Daniel Prude

American apathy: How the U.S. government and the psychiatric community abandoned Daniel Prude

March 10, 2021
2.7k
Daniel Prude

Grand jury will not seek charges against Rochester officers involved in Daniel Prude case

February 23, 2021
2k
Rochester police officers

Rochester officers suspended after pepper spray used on 9-year-old girl

February 1, 2021
3.3k
Rochester officer

Rochester officer shot in upper body, rushed to hospital by partner

December 22, 2020
3.6k
Load More
Book: The Courageous Police Leader

Latest Articles

Active Shooting

Active Shooter Reported In Austin, 3 Confirmed Dead

April 18, 2021
1.5k

Oregon newspaper: Police shot a white guy; no need to riot

April 18, 2021
1.4k
Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters tells crowd to ‘stay on the street’ if Chauvin is acquitted

April 18, 2021
2.4k

Video: Homicide suspect fires at motorcycle officer

April 18, 2021
2.1k
Birmingham police officer

You are not in control

April 17, 2021
1.5k
Source: @warchyld_ent/Instagram

NYPD confiscates air gun mounted to rapper’s Hummer

April 17, 2021
1.6k
Load More

Liberty University offers affordable tuition and a 25% discount for law officers and first responders.

Follow your Law Officer Local Network:

  • Illinois
  • Minneapolis, MN
  • New York, NY
  • Tulsa, OK
  • Wauwatosa, WI

More coming soon. Follow the news related justice, law, and order in your local area—and stand up and speak out.


Please donate and help support Law Officer

Must Read

Chris Cuomo says until ‘White people’s kids start getting killed,’ there will not be police reform

April 17, 2021
2.8k
Officer expresses shock

Officer expresses shock after shooting combative suspect with firearm instead of Taser

April 12, 2021
13k
Texas police sergeant

Qualified immunity is an endangered species

April 2, 2021
2.4k
sedition charges

DOJ quietly acknowledges there was no sedition at the US Capitol

March 30, 2021
155.6k
Source: Tito Texidor III, unsplash

Duping the ‘woke’—a new kind of criminality in America

March 26, 2021
4.7k
Load More

Stand up & speak out!

Gab with us—fight censorship!

Most Popular

Nashville officer

Graphic video shows deadly encounter between Nashville officer and Tennessee woman

March 15, 2021
221.5k
New Mexico State Police

New Mexico State Police release horrifying video of officer’s murder

April 11, 2021
59.1k

Journalist: Derek Chauvin ‘will be acquitted’; alleged drug dealer invokes the Fifth Amendment

April 1, 2021
94.5k

Police union leader speaks unpopular truth: Duante Wright shares blame in his own death

April 14, 2021
20.5k
sedition charges

DOJ quietly acknowledges there was no sedition at the US Capitol

March 30, 2021
155.6k

More from Law Officer

  • Archives (12,812)
  • Chaplain (74)
  • Chauvin Trial (14)
  • Community (128)
  • Cop Humor (15)
  • Crime & Controversy (130)
  • Editorial (460)
  • Gear & Technology (64)
  • Investigations (2,433)
  • Laws & Legal (1,315)
  • Leadership (477)
  • News (6,018)
  • Officer Down (806)
  • On Duty (91)
  • Op-ed (601)
  • Reference (1)
  • Tactics (405)

LA Police Gear

Law Officer

© 2021 LawOfficer.com

LawOfficer.com

  • Home
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Corrections
  • Contact

Speak up for justice, law & order

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Law Officer Networks
    • Illinois Network
    • Minneapolis Network
    • NYC Network
    • Tulsa Network
    • Wauwatosa Network
    • Join the Network!

© 2021 LawOfficer.com