A Pittsburgh police officer who punched, pushed and swung a Harmony woman by her head while trying to break up a fight during the PrideFest parade June 15 did not use excessive force, according to the police department’s Office of Municipal Investigations’ final report.
City solicitor Lourdes Sanchez-Ridge said city officials weighed the totality of evidence in the case, and evidence painted a different picture of the incident between 19-year-old Ariel Lawther and Pittsburgh Bureau of Police officer Souroth Chatterji than one video, photograph or statement alone might reveal. She said an independent outside agency, which Ms. Sanchez-Ridge did not identify, also backed it up.
“While OMI [the Office of Municipal Investigations] exonerated the officer in this case, it also obtained an independent third-party use of force review by an outside agency that arrived at the same conclusion,” according to a written statement Ms. Sanchez-Ridge released. “It will be city policy from this point forward to seek third-party analysis in all excessive force investigations, just as we did in this case.”
Ms. Lawther could not be reached for comment, but her civil attorney, Steven Barth, said he still is waiting to view the videotape that the OMI included in the evidence it considered. The video came from a security camera on the outside of the PNC building at Liberty Avenue and Sixth Street, about 20 to 25 feet from the scene of the incident, and could contain as much as eight hours of footage, Mr. Barth said.
“I’ve been asking for the video from the beginning; I’ve been asking the City of Pittsburgh Police, the OMI, the citizens police review board, and it’s radio silence,” Mr. Barth said. “No one will let me look at it.”
Mr. Barth said he plans to petition for a subpoena next week to obtain the video.
Under city law, the OMI investigates allegations of employee misconduct, including those of police misconduct, and provides the results of those investigations to city leaders.
In this case, city investigators reviewed police procedures on excessive force, continuity of controls and how Ms. Lawther acted and resisted, Ms. Sanchez-Ridge said. They also interviewed the officer and his supervisors; interviewed witnesses, including a friend of the complainant, parade-goers, parade protesters and workers at facilities near the incident; and reviewed a wide range of photographs and video of the incident, she said.
The OMI report has been forwarded to the public safety director for further review and analysis, according to Ms. Sanchez-Ridge. After incoming Pittsburgh police chief Cameron McLay takes office, the city will complete an evaluation of its police training procedures so city officials can learn from the PrideFest incident and implement best practices in handling similar situations in the future, according to the statement.
City spokeswoman Katie O’Malley said the OMI report would not be released to the public, under the city’s protocol for internal investigations. She also was not able to provide the name of the outside agency that reviewed the report or how much it was paid for its services.
Officer Chatterji had been taken off the street during the investigation but has returned to duty, city officials said, and Ms. Lawther faces charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Her preliminary hearing has been postponed until Oct. 22.
Officer Chatterji was accused of excessive force after he tried to break up a confrontation between Ms. Lawther and a parade protester during the parade. In his report, he wrote that, “As I did so, Lawther began to push and strike me in the chest with her hands and groin area with her legs. Due to the proximity of Lawther to myself and the crowd, I tried to push Lawther by her shoulders ...
“In a rapidly evolving and tenuous situation I grabbed Lawther by the head and swung her out of the crowd. As I was doing this I was struck and grabbed numerous times by Lawther and others.”
His report also states he punched Ms. Lawther several times in the abdomen to distract her, before handcuffing her. It also states Ms. Lawther later told him she didn’t realize he was a police officer and apologized to him.
Gary Van Horn Jr., president of PrideFest organizer Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, said his group is in the process of hiring an independent safety and security consultant with experience in large-scale events and enlisting the help of various local, state and federal government agencies for future events.
“While the city has found there to be no wrongdoing by the officer involved in the incident, we believe that we need to put additional safeguards in place to prevent an incident like this from ever occurring again,” Mr. Van Horn said.
Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board Executive Director Beth Pittinger said board members plan to discuss the PrideFest incident and how police policies might need to change during large free-speech events, at the group’s Sept. 23 meeting. Delta Foundation members and Mr. McLay have been invited to the meeting, according to Mr. Van Horn and Ms. Pittinger.
“The greater interest is in the policies and procedures that give guidance to the officers when dealing with gatherings that would be considered First Amendment-protected gatherings,” Ms. Pittinger said. “There’s a distinction to be made, and I don’t know that they have ever taken that seriously.”
First Published: September 5, 2014, 8:54 p.m.
Updated: September 6, 2014, 4:21 a.m.
