Attorney for EMT handcuffed by RPD calls agreement ‘a sham’

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The investigator who handcuffed a working EMT at Strong Memorial Hospital will be allowed to retire with benefits . The attorney representing that EMT called it a bad deal for taxpayers Thursday.

Lekia Smith was arrested by Rochester Police Investigator Charles LoTempio in July 2022, after she hit his police car with her ambulance door. Smith said she injured her wrist and shoulder when LoTempio pushed her against a registration desk to handcuff her.

LoTempio was immediately put on paid suspension. He was eventually accused of five policy violations, but eventually agreed to plead guilty only to failure to double lock handcuffs when placing Smith into custody, “despite having ample time to do so.”

“He was not held accountable for using excessive force against Lekia Smith,” Smith’s attorney Elliot Shields told News 8. “He was not held accountable for falsely arresting her, and that’s part of the settlement agreement. The settlement agreement is a sham. It only says that he only had to plead guilty to failing to double handcuff her. Well, he did much more than fail to double handcuff her.”

Under the agreement between LoTempio, RPD, and the Locust Club police union, he will be allowed to retire in March so he can collect his benefits and pension while the department seeks to remove his basic training certificate as a police officer.

“They’ve been paying LoTempio’s salary for the past couple of years, $113,000 a year to sit at a desk, not be on the streets,” Shields said. “They could have fired him and taken his salary and hired two new officers every year who were properly trained and who didn’t go out and do that. If they fired him it would have sent a message to other officers in the department that this misconduct will not be tolerated, which in the end will save the city money in having to defend itself against lawsuits like Lekia Smith’s where they’re eventually going to have to pay out much more money to defend the actions of the officers when they violate people’s constitutional rights.”

Rochester Police Chief David Smith released a statement Wednesday criticizing LoTempio’s actions, saying they “were not in line with [his] expectations” as chief.

“Although this was a lengthy process, it was crucial to follow all of the steps outlined in both Civil Service Law and the Collective Bargaining Agreement,” Smith said. “I appreciate the patience shown throughout this process, which is ultimately ending with Investigator LoTempio no longer serving as a Police Officer in the City of Rochester.”

LoTempio had previously been accused of using “unnecessary and excessive force ” by hitting a handcuffed man in the mouth with a flashlight in 2013. He was also accused of arresting and strip searching a man in February 2012, performing an “intrusive visual body cavity inspection” without a warrant against RPD training , then arresting him again when he called 911 to report him to a sergeant.

Smith’s civil lawsuit is pending.

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