Ex-volunteer cop files suit against sheriff, 3 others

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

A former volunteer Newton Township police officer accused of shooting himself in his bulletproof vest has sued Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere and three of Altiere’s investigators.

Thomas Colosimo, 38, of Newton Township, later was acquitted of criminal charges related to the incident.

Colosimo filed the suit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, naming Altiere, Maj. Thomas Stewart, Detective Michael Yannucci and former detective Peter Pizzulo as defendants.

The lawsuit seeks at least $200,000 in damages from the four as a result of the investigation of Colosimo and the alleged shooting incident.

Colosimo said he was on patrol at 3:30 p.m. July 7, 2008, when he turned off Miller Graber Road onto a cellphone access road and encountered a man, who shot Colosimo in his bulletproof vest and fled.

While Colosimo was being treated at St. Joseph Health Center for chest pain, Yannucci visited him. “From the very beginning, [Colosimo] was treated as a suspect and not a victim of crime,” the lawsuit said.

Though detectives later searched Colosimo’s home, they did not find a weapon matching the one used in the shooting.

Altiere had a news conference July 25, 2008, in which he said the department was unable to determine whether a suspect shot Colosimo, and the department was dropping its investigation.

In February 2009, Stewart filed a misdemeanor falsification charge against Colosimo, but a jury found him innocent.

Pizzulo is no longer a detective. In May 2009, he was convicted of grand theft, sentenced to 30 days in the Geauga County jail and ordered to never work in law enforcement again.

He paid $8,500 in restitution for stealing from a fundraising organization he and another sheriff’s office employee founded.

Stewart, when reached Friday by telephone, said he and Yannucci cannot comment on a pending lawsuit. Altiere could not be reached.