Pittsburgh settles suit with teacher arrested outside community meeting



By Robert Zullo / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh City Council this morning approved a $52,500 payment to settle a lawsuit filed by a teacher who was thrown in jail by a city police officer as he was leaving a community meeting in Homewood on charges that were dropped.
The settlement includes several changes to police policy and procedures, according to an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who represented Dennis Henderson, 39. The ACLU called the case a racially motivated false arrest and a clear-cut case of police misconduct.
Mr. Henderson, a teacher at the Manchester Academic Charter School, told the Citizens Police Review Board earlier this year that he was leaving a June 2013 meeting at the Community Empowerment Association in Homewood and went to his car to get a business card to give to a journalist. He was arrested after a confrontation that started when Officer Jonathan Gromek sped by and Mr. Henderson exclaimed "Wow."
The Citizens Police Review Board recommended in March that the city fire Officer Gromek. The police department recommended a written reprimand in November 2013, after the Office of Municipal Investigations found he violated departmental policy. He remains a city officer and is assigned to Zone 3, which includes most of South Side.