Pathways to Peace leader sues city

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City of Rochester official Anthony Hall has filed a lawsuit against the city, complaining that he was wrongly arrested and harassed by a Rochester Police Department officer.

In the court complaint, filed Oct. 19 in the federal Western District of  New York’s Rochester Division, Hall cites a June 18 incident in which he was arrested and charged with obstruction of government administration.

As the city’s manager of violence prevention and director of its Pathways to Peace Program, Hall serves under Mayor Malik Evans.

Anthony Hall

Citing a policy of staying silent on pending litigation, Evans administration spokesperson Barbara Pierce declined to comment. The city will fully respond in court papers, Pierce says.

Evans is not named as a defendant by the complaint. It names the city and officers involved in an allegedly false arrest of Hall last summer as its only defendants.

RPD officer Adam Gorman slammed him against a police car, handcuffed him and threw him into a patrol car “without warning or justification,” Hall claims. At the time, Hall states, he was a bystander at an early morning shooting incident in which he was not personally involved.

According to the court complaint, Gorman’s allegedly unprovoked attack occurred around 1 a.m. outside a North Street bar, the S&T Lounge, where Hall had been dining. Hall went out to investigate and spoke with another RPD officer without incident. Gorman, with whom he had not spoken, shouted at him and then attacked Hall as Hall was returning to the bar.

Hall claims that Gorman was aided by a supervisor, Lt. Nicholas Adams, in falsifying an arrest report to justify the obstruction charge. That charge was dropped after Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley and RPD chief of police David Smith personally reviewed footage of Hall’s arrest pulled from Gorman’s body-worn camera that did not match the account Gorman gave in the arrest report, Hall’s complaint states.    

Hall is asking for unspecified damages as compensation for physical injuries, mental distress and loss of professional standing he says he suffered as a result of the arrest.

Will Astor is Rochester Beacon senior writer. The Beacon welcomes comments from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name.

2 thoughts on “Pathways to Peace leader sues city

  1. Suing appears to be a method to obtain income. The lawyers are scurrying around trying to keep up with all those opportunities that present themselves. Ever count the number of attorneys living in Rochester that chase those dollars? Now you might have to go to the suburbs for that count, because that is where the money goes and most reside. Now really, count the number of lawyers. And for Howard Eagle, try something different. Instead of those negative rants,….when you have a problem, follow that up with a solution. You know, solution based meetings. Solution based efforts. That results in resolving the problems as opposed to escalating any issue. One more thing, what does the chain of command look like? I’ll tell you, the Mayor is at the top of this chain of command. The police chief of any department reports to the mayor.

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