GLENS FALLS -- The city of
Glens Falls has settled for $45,000 a false arrest notice of claim filed last
year by a Glens Falls man.
Leroy Magee had notified the
city he intended to sue in connection with a 2011 misdemeanor arrest in which
he accused of a police officer of making false accusations against him.
A notice of claim is the
precursor to a lawsuit and is legally required when someone intends to sue a
municipality.
Magee’s lawyer, William
Montgomery, said the claim was settled without need for a lawsuit after the
city’s insurance carrier reviewed the facts of the case.
“They looked at it and settled
it pretty quickly,” he said.
Glens Falls Police Chief Will
Valenza acknowledged the claim had been settled, but said there was no
admission of guilt by police. He referred further comment to Glens Falls City
Attorney Ronald Newell, who did not return a phone call for comment Wednesday.
The investigation and notice of
claim stemmed from a Nov. 5, 2011 incident at Magee’s home on Union Street that
began when a call was made seeking medical help because Magee’s wife, Kristina
Magee, was unconscious.
Leroy Magee was charged
because, according to police, he became combative, cursed at officers and
struggled with them while intoxicated. Magee has a history of arrests.
A week after the medical call
to his house, Magee filed a personnel complaint against the responding officers
in which, according to police, he made a false statement. When police looked
into his complaint, they filed a false instrument charge, accusing Magee of
lying in his statement.
The false instrument charge
arose from a comment Magee said arresting officer Andrew Mija made, which the
911 tape of the incident “disproved,” police wrote in court records.
Montgomery, though, wrote in
the notice of claim that the 911 tape also disproved four allegations Mija made
when he testified against Magee — that Magee got in the face of officers and
yelled at them, got in officers’ way and would not step away from his wife,
refused to provide information to police and struggled with officers.
Montgomery alleged that Mija
filed a sworn deposition with the court the same day Magee filed a personnel
complaint, which made him “question whether it was retaliatory and knowingly
false.”
The case went to trial in
October 2012 and a Glens Falls City Court jury acquitted Magee of resisting
arrest and obstructing governmental administration. The Warren County District
Attorney’s Office then dropped a third misdemeanor that had been filed.
Montgomery asked that Mija be
investigated for perjury. A special prosecutor was appointed, but no charges
were filed.
