DETROIT — Two off-duty police sergeants robbed three men
they apparently suspected in the theft of a cellphone belonging to the teenage
daughter of one of the officers, prosecutors in Detroit said Monday.
Detroit Sgt. David Pomeroy and Sgt. Michael Notoriano, who
works in the Detroit suburb of St. Clair Shores, are both charged with armed
robbery, among other charges.
Notoriano's 16-year-old daughter and a friend bicycled to a
Detroit gas station on July 20. Dwayne Weathington, 24, of Detroit grabbed
Notoriano's daughter by her backpack, threw her to the ground, stole her iPhone
and fled on foot, the Wayne County prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The phone was traced to a location on Detroit's east side
where Pomeroy and Notoriano drove on July 21 and confronted three Detroit men,
ages 26, 27 and 28, at gunpoint, prosecutors said.
The officers retrieved the girl's iPhone, struck one of the
men in the face and took a handgun, cash and marijuana, prosecutors said.
Notoriano's lawyer, Todd Flood, told The Associated Press
that his client and Pomeroy are "outstanding" and "highly
decorated" officers.
Pomeroy, 47, and Notoriano, 42, both are charged with armed
robbery, willful neglect of duty, unlawful imprisonment and failure to uphold
the law. Pomeroy also is charged with larceny of a firearm and Notoriano with
possessing a firearm during a felony, felonious assault and ethnic
intimidation.
The prosecutor's office didn't identify the ethnicities of
those involved.
The officers were arraigned Monday and a probable cause
hearing was scheduled for Dec. 18.
The prosecutor's office filed unarmed robbery charges
against Weathington. He hasn't yet been arraigned and doesn't have a lawyer,
prosecutor's spokeswoman Maria Miller said in an email.
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