Cops gets jail time

 

 

Ex-cop sent to prison for false police reports, striking victim

Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media

By Bill Wichert | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

 

NEWARK — Former Bloomfield Police Officer Orlando Trinidad said he had wanted to be a husband and a father, own a home and "live the American dream."

But standing before his fiancée and other supporters on Friday in a Newark courtroom, Trinidad was sentenced to five years in state prison as a result of his conviction last fall on official misconduct and related charges for submitting false police reports about a 2012 arrest.

"I am truly sorry for everything that has transpired," Trinidad said through tears, while wearing a prison uniform and with his hands cuffed in front of him. "I am a different man today as I stand here before you. I am a humbled man."

Trinidad, 34, of Bloomfield, must serve the entire sentence without an opportunity to be released on parole, and he will receive credit for 78 days of time served.

In New Jersey, an official misconduct charge carries a mandatory five-year prison sentence with a five-year period of parole ineligibility.

Trinidad and his co-defendant, former Bloomfield Police Officer Sean Courter, were convicted by a jury on Nov. 5 of making false statements in police reports about the June 7, 2012 arrest of Bloomfield resident Marcus Jeter on the Garden State Parkway.

After reviewing police dashboard videos — including footage of Jeter with his hands raised inside his vehicle — the jury determined the officers' reports falsely claimed Jeter tried to grab Courter's gun while Courter was removing Jeter from the vehicle, and that Jeter struck Trinidad.

Trinidad also was convicted of simple assault for striking Jeter during the incident.

Courter, 35, of Englishtown, is expected to be sentenced at a later date.

During Friday's hearing, Jeter said he continues to struggle with "nightmares" and wakes up in "cold sweats" as a result of the incident. Jeter said he still becomes nervous when he sees a police car.

"I feared for my life that night," Jeter said. "It's a situation that I would never want anybody to be in, and I believe that I didn't do anything to provoke the officers that night."

Jeter noted how he was arrested and faced a possible prison sentence himself before his charges were ultimately dismissed. The stress of that experience caused him to lose some of his hair, Jeter said.

As police officers, Courter and Trinidad "had a responsibility to do what's right and I don't think that they did what's right that night," Jeter said.

Jeter also is pursuing a lawsuit against Bloomfield, Courter, Trinidad and other defendants in regard to the incident.

Citing the "needless physical and psychological injury" caused to Jeter, Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Berta Rodriguez called on Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin to impose a seven-year prison sentence with a five-year period of parole ineligiblity.

By striking Jeter during the false arrest and then falsifying the police reports, Trinidad's actions "show a complete lack of respect for Marcus Jeter and the citizens of Bloomfield and Essex County, and a lack of respect for his position as a law enforcement officer," said Rodriguez, who tried the case with Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Frantzou Simon.

But Trinidad's attorney, Frank Arleo, asked the judge to impose a more lenient sentence and waive the requirement for the mandatory five-year prison sentence without parole on the official misconduct charge.

Noting how Jeter refused to get out of his vehicle and other factors, Arleo argued Jeter was not an innocent victim and that Trinidad was acting under strong provocation.

"He was a good cop and now he's lost all that," Arleo said.

Ravin rejected the state's request for a longer prison sentence, but he declined to waive the requirement for the mandatory sentence on the official misconduct charge. The judge found the circumstances of the case did not warrant such a waiver.

The arrest occurred after Courter and Bloomfield Police Officer Albert Sutterlin had responded to a domestic-related call at Jeter's Bloomfield home. His girlfriend's sister called 911 after Jeter threw the girlfriend's cell phone down a staircase during a verbal dispute.

Soon after the officers arrived, Jeter left the residence. Courter has said Jeter was drunk and fled after he had ordered him to stop, but Jeter has said he was not drunk and that Courter indicated he could leave the residence.

Courter later stopped Jeter on the Parkway, followed by Sutterlin, and the officers approached Jeter's vehicle with their guns drawn and ordered him to get out. Trinidad arrived at the scene and struck the front of Jeter's car with his patrol vehicle.

After Courter received approval from a supervisor, he broke the driver's side window and removed Jeter from the vehicle. Courter and Trinidad later claimed in their police reports that Jeter tried to disarm Courter and that he struck Trinidad.

Jeter was charged with eluding, attempting to disarm a police officer, resisting arrest and aggravated assault.

While Jeter's case was still pending, prosecutors only had the dashboard video from Courter's patrol vehicle. Jeter's attorney later obtained the dashboard video from Trinidad's patrol vehicle through an open public records request made with the Bloomfield Police Department.

After reviewing that second dashboard video, prosecutors determined the video was inconsistent with the officers' police reports. The charges against Jeter were then dropped in April 2013 and Courter and Trinidad were indicted in January 2014.

Courter and Trinidad, who had been suspended without pay, ultimately lost their jobs as a result of their convictions.

Sutterlin, who retired in May 2013, pleaded guilty in October 2013 to falsifying or tampering with records. After testifying at the officers' trial, Sutterlin was later sentenced to two years of probation.

On the witness stand at the trial, Sutterlin said he included information in his police reports that Jeter tried to grab Courter's gun and that he struck Trinidad, even though Sutterlin had not witnessed those events. He said he received those details from Courter and Trinidad when he consulted with them about the sequence of events.

Sutterlin said no one had told him to lie about the incident, and that he believed his reports were accurate when he wrote them.

Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.