Former police chief says Rochester mayor pressured him to lie about his response to Daniel Prude’s death

Former Rochester, New York Police Chief La’Ron Singletary accused the city mayor of pressuring him to lie about the series of events that followed the death of Daniel Prude and send it back after refusing. Prude, a black man, died in March after Rochester police put a pin-sock over his head and pressed his face to the ground for more than three minutes while he was naked and handcuffed, according to body camera images and documents filed by his family.

The circumstances surrounding Prude’s death were not made public until September, when the family released the body camera images and supporting evidence. The six-month delay raised questions about why his death had previously not been disclosed to the public.

In one press conference the next day and in several interviews afterwards, Mayor Lovely Warren claimed that Singletary told him that Prude died of a PCP overdose, said she did not see the video footage of her arrest until August and said argued that Singletary had played down the circumstances surrounding Prude’s death.

“I spoke with Chief of Police La’Ron Singletary how deeply I am disappointed in him personally and professionally for not having fully and precisely informed me of what happened to Mr. Prude,” said Warren at the time. Singletary announced her resignation days later – but weeks before her official departure, he was fired.

But in his notice of claim, precursor to a lawsuit, Singletary claims he was fired because he refused to lie to city council to support Warren’s account that she was misinformed about Prude’s death. .

“On September 7, Mayor Warren asked me not to disclose full and truthful information from City Council’s investigation into the Daniel Prude matter,” Singletary wrote. “Mayor Warren has asked me instead, to provide false information and to omit material information to support the mayor’s public account of his knowledge of events involving Daniel Prude.

Singletary said he was asked in that Sept. 7 conversation to omit that he told Lovely in April that Prude’s death was ruled homicidal and that he had previously told her officers had retained Prude before his death.

Singletary further asserted that when he announced his retirement on September 8, he sent “a clear indication to Mayor Warren that if I commented or testified publicly during an investigation, including that of City Council regarding the Daniel Prude case, that my truthful testimony would inevitably reveal the mayor’s false public account. “

“For this reason and perhaps for others, I allege and I believe I was dismissed on September 14,” he added.

Singletary also claimed that Warren’s account of the months after Prude’s death “damaged my reputation for honesty, integrity and truthfulness.”

“The Mayor of the City of Rochester, and others acting on behalf of the Mayor, have challenged my performance as Chief of Police for the City of Rochester by making false statements and material omissions about my work and of my duties in dealing with Daniel Prude in Rochester Police custody, his subsequent death, internal investigations by the Rochester Police Department and my communication with Mayor Warren and other city officials ” , did he declare.

The city did not respond to CBS News’s request for comment.

The New York attorney general is still investigating Prude’s death. A review by the city’s public integrity office on Tuesday found that no city employee “had violated city or department policies or ethical standards” in handling the case, according to the CBS Affiliate WROC-TV.