Rochester pays former Police Chief Singletary $75K and health benefits in settlement – Democrat & Chronicle
The city of Rochester has reached a settlement with former Police Chief La’Ron Singletary, paying him $75,000 and restoring health benefits he lost when he was fired.
“In the settlement, the City agreed to pay La’Ron Singletary $75,000, and provide health insurance benefits consistent with those he would have received through retirement,” the city said in a statement Sunday.
“There were no non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements tied to the settlement. The settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing on the part of the City.”
Singletary had alleged in a lawsuit that former Mayor Lovely Warren directed him to lie during an investigation into the death of Daniel Prude.
Singletary, who is now running for Congress on the Republican line, was fired by Warren, shortly after he announced his retirement. His retirement also prompted a mass exodus of the police department’s command staff.
He lost some health benefits because of the timing of his firing — a move he alleged was purposeful.
Singletary maintained in his lawsuit that he had been forced to leave the job because the situation was “so intolerable,” and alleged that Warren wanted him to dishonestly respond to a City Council investigation into Prude’s death. He said he refused to do so.
Prude died a week after being restrained by police in March 2020 — asphyxiation was a cause of death, and he had imbibed phencyclidine, or PCP — and set off a chain of events that included large protests, the firing of Singletary, and the ultimate electoral defeat of Warren, a loss likely partly due to her handling of Prude’s death. Warren contended that she had not revealed the death publicly because she was given false information about the incident.
An internal investigation contracted by City Council determined that Singletary misled city officials and the public about the death, and that Warren also misled the public.
Report:Rochester mayor, other officials lied about handling of Prude case, report says
Singletary alleged wrongful termination, a hostile work environment, and defamation in his lawsuit.
The lawsuit was settled during the month that former Deputy Mayor James Smith served as mayor. Warren agreed to leave the job at the end of November as part of a plea deal that resolved campaign finance, firearm possession, and child endangerment charges.
In that plea, she only admitted to illegal handling of campaign finances. Charges were dropped that stemmed form the arrest of her estranged husband, Timothy Granison, and allegations of illegal firearm possession in the home and an environment endangering their daughter.
There were no claims that drugs were sold from Warren’s home.
Current Mayor Malik Evans handily defeated Warren in the Democratic primary.
“The settlement was negotiated by the prior administration, but because the paperwork and the processing of the check took some time, the Stipulation of Settlement was filed this week,” city spokeswoman Barbara Pierce said in an email Friday. “The current administration had no role in the settlement.”
The stipulation of settlement is the formal document notifying courts that the lawsuit has been resolved.
The city Sunday released specifics of the settlement, saying that public access requests were not necessary for the information.
“It will not be the policy of the Evans administration to require media representatives to file FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests to obtain details of legal settlements,” the city said in its statement.
The Democrat and Chronicle filed a FOIL request for settlement terms and also asked the administration for the information.
Contact Gary Craig at gcraig@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitterat gcraig1.
