Fired Rochester Police Chief La’Ron Singletary made good Wednesday on his promise to sue the city and Mayor Lovely Warren over his termination.
Singletary filed suit seeking $1.5 milliion in damages for wrongful termination and defamation of character by the mayor.
Singletary was fired by the mayor in September of 2020, after she claimed he withheld important information from her about the death of Daniel Prude after he was in police custody. Singletary says the mayor ordered him to lie on her behalf about what he told her and when, and says he was fired when he refused to do it.
Prude died after his encounter with Rochester police in March, but the public only learned of it in September of 2020. A New York Attorney General’s investigation failed to produce indictments for any of the officers involved.
The City of Rochester replied to SIngletary’s suit with a slam against the former chief and Rochester Police, saying “There has been a legacy in the Rochester Police Department of untruthfulness. Mr. Singletary’s testimony to the special counsel detailed his own inability to tell the truth…Mr. Singletary failed in his duties as chief was rightfully terminated due to those failures.”
The Rochester Police Locust Club, the patrol officer’s union, fired back that Mayoral Spokesperson Justin Roy should be fired on the spot, and added that there’s not a big enough broom to sweep the corruption out of city hall.