Couple sue Schenectady police for false arrest, provide video

Editor’s note: This story was corrected on Sept. 22. An earlier version incorrectly identified the neighborhood in which the Sheridan’s live.

SCHENECTADY — A city husband and wife are claiming in a lawsuit that police falsely arrested them three years ago, and say a bystander’s video supports their case.

Denise and Ronald Sheridan of Carrie Street filed the suit last week ahead of the three-year anniversary of the incident, which was Monday.

They claim city police officers arrested them without cause at their Northside neighborhood home after they tracked down a fugitive in the area.

According to the suit, city police showed up at the Sheridan home just before 5 p.m. Sept. 18, 2014, looking for the fugitive. 

The fugitive was not at the home and police then found the man walking down the street. They chased and arrested him.

The video provided, made available to The Daily Gazette, appears to pick up after that. 

After arresting the man, officers returned to the Sheridan house, “physically manipulated” Denise Sheridan and placed her into custody, having “committed no crime nor given any reason” for such actions, the suit reads.

Police took her to the police station and ultimately released her without charging her, the suit reads.

The suit alleges the same for Ronald Sheridan. Police charged him with a crime, but the charge was later dismissed in the interests of justice, the suit says.

The suit names the city of Schenectady, four officers by name and all other officers present as defendants. The other officers are described by their position in the video. Among the officers named as a defendant is current Police Chief Eric Clifford, who at the time was a lieutenant.

City Corporation Counsel Carl Falotico said this week he hadn’t seen the suit or the video and couldn’t comment. Clifford said Thursday he was unaware of the suit and also couldn’t comment.

The Sheridans claim false and unlawful arrest as well as failure by the department to properly investigate a police misconduct complaint Denise Sheridan made two months after the incident. 

She submitted the video as part of that complaint, according to a previously filed document in the case.

The couple seeks unspecified punitive damages.

The three-minute-long video shows officers approach a woman in a driveway, restrain her and place her in handcuffs on the lawn. The suit identifies the woman as Denise Sheridan.

Officers pick her up off the lawn and she appears to cry out in pain.

A man in a yellow shirt is seen running back onto the home’s porch and officers there grab him and appear to take him to the porch floor. That man is identified in the suit as Ronald Sheridan.

Two officers then walk the man down the porch stairs and near the videographer. Ronald Sheridan can be heard describing what happened on the porch. “This guy right here punched me right in the head,” he says at one point.

A second man is also seen being led off the porch, apparently in custody.

Clifford appears on the video about halfway in and addresses the videographer, who by that point has moved from across the street to the sidewalk near the house.

“This kid is under arrest for resisting arrest. I’ll have to take that as evidence if you don’t keep going,” Clifford says.

“I’m  an innocent bystandar,” the videographer responds.

“You’re documenting evidence right now,” Clifford says as the lieutenant moves on.

The videographer backs up on the sidewalk, but keeps filming and no other officers approach him.

Denise Sheridan filed a complaint with the department two months after the incident and an internal affairs investigator interviewed her, according to an earlier document filed in the case. She also provided the video.

The Sheridan’s attorney, Arthur Frost, this week said the suit and video speak for themselves.

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million,” Frost said.

The officers named in the suit are Clifford, Jonathan Moore, Derek Sherman and Kevin Derkowski. Twelve others are named as “John Does.”

The couple filed a notice of claim with the city in January 2015, a lawsuit precursor, but beyond the standard deadline. They won the right from a judge to file a late notice, and, by extension, the full lawsuit.

Categories: News, Schenectady County