Bloomfield Police Officers Sean Courter and Orlando Trinidad are facing official misconduct and related charges in connection with a 2012 arrest
NEWARK -- In a case of lies and police dashboard video footage, attorneys clashed on Wednesday over who has been telling the truth about a 2012 arrest in the official misconduct trial of Bloomfield Police Officers Sean Courter and Orlando Trinidad.
During closing statements at the trial, Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Betty Rodriguez argued Courter and Trinidad lied in police reports about the June 7, 2012 arrest of Marcus Jeter after a motor vehicle stop on the Garden State Parkway.
Based on the video from Trinidad's patrol vehicle - which shows Jeter with his hands raised inside the vehicle - Rodriguez said the officers made false statements in their reports that Jeter tried to grab Courter's gun while Courter was removing him from the vehicle, and that Jeter hit Trinidad.
Rodriguez said the video "speaks volumes, more than words."
"They were police officers acting in the performance of their duty and they violated their duty...by filing false reports, filing false complaints against Marcus Jeter," Rodriguez told the jury.
But the officers' attorneys argued Jeter is the liar in the case.
Trinidad's attorney, Frank Arleo, claimed in his closing statement that Jeter "lied on every significant fact in the case," because he is seeking "big dollars" in a lawsuit he filed against the officers and other defendants.
"He makes Pinocchio look like honest Abe Lincoln," said Arleo, who also criticized how Jeter compared his arrest to the 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police.
Courter's attorney, Charles Clark, also argued the video shows Jeter's hands go down at some point, and said the video does not capture Courter's perspective when he was inside Jeter's vehicle.
Clark stressed that the officers' reports are based on what they "reasonably believed" about the incident at the time they prepared those documents. When an officer has such a belief, Clark said "being mistaken in a police report" does not mean one is guilty of a crime. No witnesses said Courter and Trinidad purposely lied, Clark said.
If Courter believed Jeter was trying to grab his gun, then he's not guilty, according to Clark.
"It's all about the officers and what they reasonably believed at the time they wrote their reports," Clark told the jurors.
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Courter, 35, of Englishtown and Trinidad, 34, of Bloomfield, were charged with official misconduct, conspiracy, tampering with records, and false swearing. Trinidad also is charged with aggravated assault for striking Jeter during the incident.
The officers have been suspended without pay from their positions.
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.
Once Courter received approval from a supervisor, he broke the driver's side window and removed Jeter from the vehicle.
Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Betty Rodriguez delivers her closing statement on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the trial of Bloomfield Police Officers Sean Courter and Orlando Trinidad, who are facing official misconduct and related charges in connection with a 2012 arrest on the Garden State Parkway. (Bill Wichert | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)In police reports, Courter and Trinidad claimed Jeter tried to disarm Courter and that he struck Trinidad. Jeter, 31, has testified he had his "hands up" the whole time and said he never tried to disarm Courter and did not strike Trinidad.
Jeter was charged with eluding, attempting to disarm a police officer, resisting arrest and aggravated assault.
Prosecutors initially only had the police dashboard video from Courter's vehicle. After prosecutors later reviewed the video from Trinidad's vehicle, they determined that video was inconsistent with the officers' police reports.
Consequently, the charges against Jeter were dropped and Courter and Trinidad were ultimately charged.
The officers' attorneys have maintained the video shows Jeter's hands came down at some point when Courter was trying to remove him. When Courter feels a tug on his holster, the only conclusion he could reach was that Jeter was reaching for his gun, according to Clark.
But Rodriguez argued Jeter's hands are not visible for a "split second," and she claimed that's because they were blocked by Courter's body.
Rodriguez said Jeter never tried to grab Courter's gun. She also said Trinidad lied in a police report when he claimed he and Sutterlin had to remove Jeter's hands from Courter's weapon.
"His hands are way up in the air in a gesture of surrender the whole time," said Rodriguez, referring to Jeter. "No way that Marcus Jeter was going for that weapon."
Rodriguez also claimed Jeter did not resist arrest and that Trinidad used excessive force when he later struck Jeter in the back of the head after he had been placed in handcuffs.
Arleo, however, argued Jeter was "still battling" as he was being arrested and didn't want to go into the police vehicle. Arleo also said Jeter's medical records do not show Trinidad attempted to cause serious bodily injury to him.
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The attorneys also debated the merits of the trial testimony provided by Sutterlin.
Sutterlin, who retired in May 2013, pleaded guilty in October 2013 to falsifying or tampering with records, and is awaiting sentencing. Under a plea agreement, Sutterlin is expected to receive probation.
On the witness stand last week, Sutterlin testified he included information in his police reports that Jeter tried to grab Courter's gun and that he struck Trinidad, even though Sutterlin had not witnessed those events. He said he received those details from Courter and Trinidad.
But Clark and Arleo pointed out how Sutterlin acknowledged no one had told him to lie about the incident. Sutterlin had said he consulted with the other officers about the sequence of events, and that he believed his reports were accurate when he wrote them.
Rodriguez countered that the conspiracy does not have to be overt and include a direct instruction to lie.
"The agreement can be inferred," said Rodriguez, adding that Courter and Trinidad conspired and told "Officer Sutterlin what to put down in the reports, even if it wasn't explicit that it was a lie."
Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.