Lawsuit alleges police harassment shut six
December 13th, 2010 | Author: Doctor
January 1, 2010 Lawsuit alleges police harassment shut six-pack shop
JOHNSTOWN — A failed mayoral candidate is suing the city police department, saying officers harassed his pizza and beer business to the point he had to close.
Donnie P. Rozier Jr. is suing police in U.S. District Court on behalf of his now-closed Clinton Street Pizza & 6 Pack Restaurant.
The civil rights lawsuit – Rozier is black – names police Capt. Andrew Frear and two lower-ranking officers.
City Solicitor Nicholas Banda said court papers have not yet been served on the city. The suit was filed this week.
“We’ll have to look at it a lot closer and talk to the officers involved and go from there,” Banda said Wednesday. “I don’t know if he has a legitimate claim or not.”
Rozier, through Hollidaysburg attorney Arthur S. Cohen, accuses Johnstown police of engaging in “a persistent pattern of interfering with the operation of the Clinton Street Pizza & 6 Pack.”
According to the lawsuit, police came to Clinton Street Pizza during the Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally in June 2008.
They accused Rozier of participating in the drug trade and of harboring drug dealers at his restaurant, the suit says. The suit claims officers also said he was engaged in running a prostitution ring.
Other alleged incidents included:
• That Frear and an officer parked their official vehicles in front of the place on June 27, 2008, to deter customers from entering.
• That a detective threatened that he would chase customers out of the restaurant and that “the chief himself bragged that he could not sleep knowing that the plaintiff’s place of business was still open.”
• That, on June 28, 2008, all motorcycles that were parked in front on Clinton Street were chased away every 15 minutes.
• That Rozier was being monitored by aircraft to look for drug users near his business.
“The systematic efforts of the Johnstown Police Department was to effect the closure of the plaintiff’s business and to defame the plaintiff by calling him a drug dealer, particularly knowing that the plaintiff is an African-American,” the suit said.
Though not mentioned in the lawsuit, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board repeatedly had cited the business for alleged violations.
Clinton Street Pizza closed in March and faced bankruptcy proceedings.
Rozier is seeking an unspecified dollar amount to be awarded at trial.
In a May election story, The Tribune-Democrat reported that Rozier owed delinquent taxes and had failed to repay about $50,000 on an economic-development loan issued by the city.
The businessman finished third in the race for the Democratic nomination for Johnstown mayor, garnering 226 votes.
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