A New Jersey cop who did not think twice about lying on a police
report to send a man to prison was sentenced to five years in
prison on Friday without the eligibility of parole.
And only because his dash cam contradicted his police report.
Otherwise, it may have been Marcus Jeter sentenced to prison on
charges of eluding, resisting arrest, aggravated assault and
attempting to disarm a police officer.
Instead, it was Bloomfield police officer Orlando Trinidad
convicted on charges of simple assault, official misconduct,
conspiracy to commit official misconduct, tampering with public
records, falsifying public records and false swearing.
His partner in crime, Bloomfield police officer Sean Courter,
was also convicted last November and was scheduled to be
sentenced on Friday, but his sentencing was postponed, according
to the Associated Press.
But like Trinidad, Courter is also facing a mandatory minimum
sentence of five years.
A third cop who also falsified reports, Albert Sutterlin,
pleaded guilty in 2013 and agreed to testify against the other
two cops in a five-week trial that ended with their convictions
in November 2015.
“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.”
“He was a good cop and now he’s lost all that,” his attorney,
Frank Arleo, added.
Now he will be a convict. A career flushed down the toilet
because he figured he could lie and get away with it.
And he would have gotten away with it had he not driven his car
in the opposite direction on the Garden State Parkway, striking
Jeter’s car after it had been pulled over by Courter on the
night of June 6, 2012.
That aggressive act positioned his patrol car directly in front
of Jeter’s car, showing Jeter’s had his hands raised when both
Trinidad and Courter yelled at him to get out of the car,
shattering his window and dragging him out, laying him down on
the ground while ordering him to stop resisting and to stop
grabbing their gun – obviously for the benefit of the camera.
“I’m not grabbing,” Jeter kept saying. “I did nothing wrong.”
Sutterlin walked up moments before they dragged him out of the
car and later claimed he saw nothing, but went ahead with the
lies in his report because he just assumed his fellow cops were
telling the truth.
This is how it all unraveled, according to NJ.com:
The series of events leading to Jeter’s arrest began when
Courter and a third officer, Albert Sutterlin, 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
argument.
Soon after the officers arrived, Jeter left the residence.
Courter has claimed 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.
Among other alleged lies, Arleo claimed Jeter was lying about
being allowed to leave the home, noting how Courter immediately
ran to his patrol vehicle and reported to other police officers
via radio that “he just took off on me.”
After Courter later stopped Jeter on Parkway, followed by
Sutterlin, 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.
Jeter told ABC News that he did not get out of the car because
he was in fear for his life considering he was surrounded by two
cops with guns drawn, including one with a shotgun.
Initially, only Courter’s video was released to his attorney
prior to his trial. But when his attorney demanded Trinidad’s
footage, that was what led to Jeter’s charges being dismissed.
Jeter has since filed a lawsuit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ty_sJ73Aw
https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/01/new-jersey-cop-
sentenced-to-five-years-in-prison-after-dash-cam-video-proved-he-
lied-on-arrest-report/