St. Paul cop is acquitted of 4 of 5 charges after incident at holiday party
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posted by Bob at Tuesday, May 05, 2009
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Adam Siegfried was convicted of disorderly conduct in an altercation with an off-duty bartender at O'Gara's.
By PAT PHEIFER, Star Tribune
Last update: May 4, 2009 - 11:39 PM
St. Paul police officer Adam Siegfried was acquitted of four misdemeanor counts of assault Monday night by a Ramsey County jury, but convicted of one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in connection with an incident last year at a holiday party for police.
District Judge Joanne Smith scheduled sentencing for June 30.
Siegfried, 35, a patrol officer in the city's Western District, attended the party Jan. 20, 2008, at O'Gara's Garage with his wife and colleagues. He testified last week that he had about four beers over the course of four hours.
Ryan Smith, 28, an off-duty bartender, came to the back room where the party was being held about 11:30 p.m. to talk to the bartender on duty. He testified that he'd been drinking all day -- a total of eight or nine beers and a couple of shots -- but wasn't "bombed out of my mind."
Siegfried first noticed Smith on the south side of the bar talking to a female officer. He asked Smith to leave, telling him it was a private party. Smith left, then returned. Siegfried again approached and told him to get out. According to Siegfried's testimony, he took Smith's left arm at his bicep and wrist and tried to walk him backward to the door. Smith stumbled and fell but didn't hit his head, Siegfried said. Smith hoisted himself up on a stool or the bar and high-tailed it out of the room, Siegfried said.
Siegfried says he didn't hit or kick Smith. But Molly Michel, a server who was working at the party, said she saw Siegfried punch Smith, then kick him when he was on the ground.
Smith suffered cuts to his tongue that needed 10 stitches.
Smith's friend Dennis Olson, who tried to come to his aid, was kicked in the head four or five times by partygoers, Olson testified.
Defense attorney Earl Gray said Smith bit his tongue when he fell on his rear end. Gray suggested that Smith and Olson were motivated by money. Both have talked to civil attorneys and are considering filing a suit, he told the jury.
He again showed photos of the two men's faces taken soon after the incident that showed no visible bruises or other injuries.
Gray said Siegfried had every right to try to walk Smith out of the party after he was asked to leave and came back anyway. "Whether it's a police party, a Shriner's party, a sewing party, if somebody comes in there drunk, you have a right to escort them out. It's common sense," Gray said.
Lisa Godon, a Minneapolis assistant city attorney, prosecuted the case to avoid a conflict of interest.
Pat Pheifer • 612-741-4992
Defense attorney Earl Gray pay enough and you can get away with murder.
Is anyone really suprised that the cop got off scott free?
10:02 it was a jury that came back with this verdict, and a jury are people that are citizens of St.Paul!
OK, if you have never been in a bar fight, well then maybe you would think that the winner in a minor bar scuffle should do twenty years in jail... but some of us, believe it or not, have been in a bar fight or two and might think that even the conviction for disorderly conduct is pretty heavy.
Bob, you can't tell me that you haven't been somewhere near the same situation some time in your life. In a bar with friends, "private party" some loud drunk comes up and hassles one of the women in your group. You ask him nicely to leave and then twenty minutes later he's back in their hitting on her again. So, you grab this loud mouth's arm and proceed to drag his sorry ass out of the bar with some authority.
He either struggles or pulls away or mouth's off or whatever a few pushes, punches or kicks happen and the deal is done. Nobody goes to the hospital.
FIVE freaking charges!!
Why?
Because he was a cop off duty and we have to throw the book at him.
The best his attorney was able to do was get it down to the disorderly. That still looks like the jury felt they had to stick something.
If I'd have gotten 90 days for every minor bar fight I was in during my twenties, I would have spent all of my thirties in jail...
JMONTOMEPPOF
Chuck Repke
Chuck,
I disagree with you here.
Danny O'Gara owns the place not the cops. They rent a room. They have a problem, they go to the bar management like anyone would if you were having a party that was being crashed.
One of the cops escorting him out or getting the manager to toss his ass out is what you do when you're a cop out drinking. You are told these things in the academy. You really don't have the luxury of being a private citizen. You give that up when you are given the right question, arrest or kill.
Several cops kicked his ass and his friend. When he was first hit, he yelled for someone to call the cops- they response was "We are the motherfuckin' cops". That says it all.
The other bartender who tried to intervene to stop it (or you can think he's so stupid as to try and jump on several cops after they've ID'd themselves), was punched down and kicked in the head.
This is bullshit and what I expect over in Minneapolis. They are damn lucky on two levels, one that Earl Gray was available- how a cop's salary can afford him, I don't know and two, no cameras. A camera would have made this national news and instead of a little slap on the wrist, the whole department could have come under scrutiny.
That cowboy do anything we want attitude is exactly why Minneapolis can't hold on to a Chief and our Sheriff is under gun.
Much better coverage in the Pionees Press- I'll post below.
Eric
St. Paul officer acquitted of assault, convicted of disorderly conduct for O'Gara's incident
Jury convicts him of disorderly conduct
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 05/04/2009 10:29:12 PM CDT
A St. Paul police officer accused of punching and kicking a bartender at O'Gara's bar last year was acquitted of assault and instead convicted of a less serious disorderly conduct charge Monday.
Officer Adam Siegfried bowed his head and wiped his eyes as the six-member jury's verdict was read in Ramsey County District Court. Jurors deliberated about four hours before deciding the case Monday night.
In her closing arguments, prosecutor Lisa Godon argued that the case against Siegfried was about a simple, disturbing mindset — summed up in an statement allegedly uttered during a police holiday party at the bar in January 2008.
"We are the (expletive) cops."
Siegfried, Gordon argued, believed he was above the law when he allegedly shoved, punched and kicked Ryan Smith, an off-duty bartender who walked in on the party.
When Smith's friend Dennis Olson saw Smith on the floor and cried for someone to "call the cops," a voice from the crowd gave the unsympathetic reply.
"That says a lot about the attitude there that night," Godon said in her closing arguments Monday while also commenting on the tendency of the police to band together in the face of a challenge against a fellow officer: "It was an unprovoked attack on an unarmed civilian by someone who was abusing his authority."
Siegfried, 35, of St. Paul — a 10-year veteran of the police department — was charged with four counts of assault and one count of disorderly conduct in
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connection with the incident that occurred as members of the Western District police unit were holding their holiday party at the Snelling Avenue bar Jan. 20, 2008.
All five counts were misdemeanors.
Siegfried testified in his own defense that the incident never happened as prosecutors alleged. He said he did tell Smith to leave, because Smith was drunk and had bothered one of the female officers.
Smith exited but came back into the bar, Siegfried and others said. When Siegfried began "escorting" Smith out, Smith tripped and fell backward, biting his tongue, the officer said. He denied attacking him.
The assault charges involved Smith as well as Olson, 29, who intervened when he saw Smith on the floor of the bar, he said.
The strongest witness for the prosecution was Molly Michel, a server who said she saw Siegfried shove, punch and kick Smith, 29.
In his closing argument Monday, defense attorney Earl Gray tried to undermine Michel by saying she embellished her story in order to spread gossip among her friends.
Gray disputed the prosecution's argument that Michel had no interest in the case. If all she saw was Smith trip and fall down, as Siegfried said had happened, no one would much care.
But a punch by a cop?
"She's going to get these co-workers really interested now," Gray said.
Michel told a police commander after the incident that she saw Siegfried punch Olson, too — but then said on the witness stand she didn't remember seeing that.
Gray exhorted the jury to heed the testimony of defense witness Dr. Steven Tredal, an emergency-room physician at United Hospital. Tredal said the photos and medical records of Smith and Olson did not appear to show the men were hit in the face, Gray said. Tredal did not treat the men.
Gray also insisted Siegfried had the authority to lead Smith out when he entered the private party intoxicated, was asked to leave, left and then returned. That's trespassing, Gray said.
"Doesn't matter if it's a police party, a Shriners party or a sewing party," Gray said. "If they come back, and they're drunk, you have a right to escort them out."
Godon scoffed at the notion Smith was trespassing.
Smith worked at O'Gara's, though he was off duty at the time of the party.
Even if he had been trespassing, bar owner Dan O'Gara testified he never ceded control of the premises to the groups holding private parties, Godon said.
"The building belongs to O'Gara. It doesn't belong to the St. Paul Police Department," Godon said. "This trespassing issue is completely bogus."
The Minneapolis city attorney's office handled the case against Siegfried to avoid a conflict of interest.
The license of a police officer convicted of misdemeanor could go before the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training's complaint committee for review and possible action, said Neil Melton, the board's executive director. There are "no hard and fast rules" about what would happen to a license in a misdemeanor case and it "would depend on the circumstances," he said.
Sentencing has been set for June 30.
Tad Vezner and Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this repor
Eric, I am not promoting fights... but there does appear to be two sides to the story. And one side is that a loud drunk hassles a woman in a bar (agreed to on both sides) is asked nicely to leave (agreed to on both sides) and then comes on back to go after the same woman again.
My point was, feel free to have a knee jerk reaction against the cops, but I know you and know you well enough to know that if we were in a bar together in our younger days and some ass-hole was accosting a female friend of ours after he had already been asked to leave, the last thing we would do would be to worry about our personal reputations and wait for the bar staff (who had already shown that they weren't going to do anything about this drunk) to do something about this drunk.
I know I would be over there protecting the young woman who was with our group and my gut says you would be there too.
That is what this cop claims to have done and if you see the world from the moment from his eyes, it isn't cops gone wild, its drunk hassles female friend, patrons get him to leave, lame bar staff do nothing, drunk hits on female friend again and cops try to protect female being accosted by drunk in a bar that won't do anything about this drunk.
Yes, the proper thing is to talk to the staff, but the staff isn't doing anything... this cop doesn't know that the jerk is an employee and that is why they aren't throwing him out... they don't see him as a threat... but to the cop, he looks like a threat, the guy is big loud drunk hassling a female friend at what is suppose to be a safe evening out.
It isn't his "cop" that responds, its his "man" that responds to protect a woman being accosted by a drunk. In a bar where the staff won't do anything to help...
JMONTOMEPPOF
Chuck Repke
Eric 12:33 PM
Nice comment Eric.
There are far more good police officers then bad.
Sometimes a few makes all look bad.
Bill Dahn
The thing that makes them all look like rats is that the good ones will lie and cover up for the bad ones. How ya supposed to trust any of them?
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