Attorney ends suit with city

The lawyer says documents may aid in federal lawsuits against the police.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- An attorney who has represented clients questioning Warren police conduct has ended a lawsuit with the city, in which he sought documents.
Atty. Gilbert W.R. Rucker of Warren said he received the records he sought. He filed a lawsuit in April in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court asking for them. "They gave me everything I pursued," Rucker said Thursday.
He sued Law Director Gregory Hicks and Police Chief John Mandopoulos, seeking personnel records of four Warren police officers and documents on officer training and procedures, among other things.
Hicks said Rucker dropped the lawsuit after coming to the city building and inspecting the records and making copies.
Rucker said the documents were not for a specific case or any new cases he planned to file -- but for "general" reasons and because they might be useful in two pending federal lawsuits he has filed.
What he asked for
His common pleas suit asked for personnel files of officers Christopher O'Rourke, John Greaver, Patrick T. Hoolihan and Jason R. McCollum. It also sought documents pertaining to officer training, policies and complaints relating to constitutional rights violations excessive use of force.
Hicks said once it was clear that the city was not required by law to provide a list of records -- but only to make the records available for inspection and copying -- the suit was no longer necessary.
Rucker filed a federal lawsuit in Youngstown last October on behalf of Terra Brown, 35, of Atlantic Street, and two of her children alleging unfair treatment by police in their arrests the previous October. Named as defendants were the city, Patrolman Doug Hipple, Patrolman Nick Carney and John Doe police officers.
The suit said Brown's son, Regis, 15, was walking on Mercer Street when officers arrested him for reportedly using profanity. Terra Brown reported seeing her son on his knees before Hipple and Carney, "who had weapons drawn and aimed at the head of her son," the suit said.
An officer allegedly lifted Terra Brown "off her feet and slammed her to the ground ... into a muddy puddle of water with a foot or knee restraining her and placing her head in the water," the lawsuit states.
They claim the officers used excessive force, conducted unlawful arrests and violated the First Amendment rights of Regis Brown while he was using constitutionally protected free speech. The suit also says the defendants failed to properly train officers, committed assault and battery, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Another suit
In another federal lawsuit Rucker filed in Youngstown in 2004, LaShawn Ziegler, owner of a nightclub on Youngstown-Warren Road called 77 Soul, sued the city and Mandopoulos for engaging in what he said was a scheme to shut the nightclub down. Ziegler charged that police chief and certain, unnamed officers deliberately harassed him and his patrons.
The city also enforced city ordinances against his business in a discriminatory manner, the lawsuit said. The former mayor and former safety services director plotted with Mandopoulos to close the nightclub, the suit says. 77 Soul closed in 2004 after it was cited by the city building inspection department for not having sprinklers or fire walls.