The report from a special counsel hired by the City of Rochester to investigate the circumstances of the Daniel Prude death and its aftermath says the city did suppress information about what happened.
Prude died nearly a year ago, a week after he was restrained and held to the pavement on Jefferson Avenue. He fell unconscious while suffering from the effects of PCP and never woke up. The community didn’t learn of Prude’s death until his family got the police body camera footage through a Freedom of Information filing and went public in September about what happened.
Seven members of the Rochester Police Department remain on suspension because of the incident.
City Council named Attorney Andrew Celli as a special investigator to look into the Prude case. Celli wrote in his executive summary that there is no straightforward explanation for the four month delay in revealing the circumstances of Daniel Prude’s death. The report says the decision not to publicly disclose the facts rests with Mayor Lovely Warren, but the mayor alone is not responsible. The Celli report says former Police Chief La’Ron Singletary “consistently deemphasized the role of police restraints in the death of Daniel Prude, and his statements did not capture the disturbing tenor of the entire encounter.
The report says “Chief Singletary’s characterization of the Prude arrest likely impacted how the city officials he informed of the matter viewed what had ocurred.”
The Special Independent Counsel hired to defend the City of Rochester in the Daniel Prude case is reacting to the special counsel’s report.
Attorney Carrie Cohen says it’s important to note that the special counsel did not find evidence that any city employee outside of former Police Chief La’Ron Singeltary, acted to hide or cover up what happened to Daniel Prude while he was in police custody. She says the elected officials, including Mayor Warren, made their best efforts to make decisions in real time based on the information they were being given.
Cohen also calls out an assertion in the Special Counsel’s Report that Mayor Warren made untrue statements regarding Prude’s death. She calls that “false,” and says the mayor spoke based on what she believed to be the facts. She says if that information was misleading, former Chief Singletary is to blame.