Rochester is facing a federal lawsuit that claims the city and Fulton County encourages bad police work.

The Rochester Sentinel reports that attorneys for Erik Sampsel, of Akron, filed a civil rights action in Northern Indiana District Court at South Bend on June 12. The suit specifically names Rochester Police Officers Jesse M. Reason and Ed Haines and Fulton County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Derek Halterman.

Lawyer Danny Saiz told The Rochester Sentinel that he could not talk about the case, but only said, “We believe his rights were violated and he’ll be vindicated in court.”

The Sentinel’s Managing Editor, Christina Seiler, reported that the lawsuit claims officers Reason, Haines and Halterman “arrested him unjustly on Feb. 17, 2013, used excessive force while doing so and then falsely charged him with a crime.”

Seiler’s call to county attorney Greg Heller’s office about who will represent the county was not returned. Neither was a call to Rochester Police Chief Andy Shotts.

Although Sampsel never faced any formal charges or traffic citations, his lawsuit noted the traffic ticket he was issued for driving left of center was dismissed by the Fulton County Prosecutor’s office and another ticket charging him with failing to signal a lane change was never filed with the court.

Further, The Sentinel reported Sampsel was taken to jail on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, two counts of battering a law enforcement officer and one count of resisting law enforcement, but the prosecutor declined to file those charges. One final charge of felony possession of a controlled substance was also dismissed by the court when Sampsel proved he had a valid prescription.

Sampsel’s suit states, according to The Sentinel, that he was pulled over on Indiana 14 near Lake Manitou on Feb. 17, 2013. After writing Sampsel the two traffic tickets, Officer Reason administered a standardized field sobriety test on Sampsel, although he did not claim Sampsel displayed any signs of being impaired and a portable breath-alcohol test found no alcohol in his system.

Officers Haines and Halterman soon arrived on the scene and Halterman ran his police dog around Sampsel’s vehicle, then claimed his dog indicated there were narcotics in the car. The suit states: “At no time did Mr. Sampsel threaten the officers, verbally or physically … Deputy Halterman attacked Mr. Sampsel by grabbing him and forcibly throwing him onto the hood of the police commission. Deputy Halterman was then assisted by Officers Reason and Haines who collectively continued to shout at and manhandle Mr. Sampsel. While Mr. Sampsel was in the officers’ collective grasp and facing away from them, he was stuck by Officer Haines in the face. Officer Reason later claimed Mr. Sampsel had struck two officers.”

The Sentinel reported that Sampsel asked at the Fulton County Jail for further testing to show he was not intoxicated, but his request was denied or ignored.

“The lawsuit claims the city and county have encouraged bad police work. It says the governments have been indifferent to policies and practices, among them:

• Legal cause to stop,detain, arrest or charge citizens;

• The use of force by police officers;

• The proper exercise of police powers;

• The monitoring of officers it knows or should have known were suffering from emotional and or psychological problems that impaired the ability to function as officers;

• Failure to identify and take remedial or disciplinary action against offers who were the subject of prior civil or internal complaints of misconduct;

• The practice, among Rochester police officers, of instituting false charges against individuals whom the officers have subjected to unlawful force with the intention of precluding those individuals from instituting civil claims.”

Through the lawsuit, Sampsel says the officers actions constituted battery, false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages and his attorney fees paid.

Two lawyers filed the suit: Saiz and Andrew P. Wirick, an Indianapolis attorney who at one point served as chief counsel for litigation for the Indianapolis-Marion County consolidated government and its employees.

Source: The Rochester Sentinel