Troy police accused of beating man in arrest captured on video

TROY – Four city police officers are accused of having “savagely beaten” and severely injured a 50-year-old man in a March 3 arrest that was recorded by a surveillance camera, according to motions filed in City Court.

The surveillance footage shows the officers kicking, kneeing and punching Lamont Lee after they  had already wrestled him to the ground at about 10:52 p.m., March 3.  The Times Union reviewed the footage Monday at the offices of Michael Feit, Lee’s attorney. Feit declined to release the recording.

In the video, police can be seen arriving where Lee and two other men are standing on Congress Street. The video contains no sound but Lee appears to respond to officers by placing his hands spread out on the wall with his back to the street.

The video then shows him reaching a hand into a left pants pocket. The officers pull his hand away and wrestle him to the ground. The other men stand along the wall in the background, watching as the four officers force Lee to the ground.

Lee and the officers are then seen rolling around on the ground with him standing up then being forced back down to the sidewalk. An officer can be seen kneeing Lee to hold him down. While Lee is sprawled on the ground, one officer hits him in the rear. Another officer appears to kick him at one point and he is repeatedly kneed.  Near the end of the video, an officer can be seen punching Lee several times in the head.

Lee “was arrested without probable cause and savagely beaten by members of the Troy Police Department,” Feit said in his motions to have Lee’s guilty plea to seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance in the case set aside. At the time of the plea, Lee was represented by the public defender's office.

“Upon being taken to the Troy Police Station, the Desk Sergeant refused to allow Defendant to be locked up, but rather because of the apparent serious injuries to Defendant’s head, face and body, directed that Defendant be transported to the hospital,” Feit continued.

"This is something that shouldn't be happening," Feit said.

Feit wants the case reopened, asking Judge Christopher Maier to set aside the guilty plea so information about the incident, including the video, can be aired in open court. The video was not shown during Lee's March court appearance when he pleaded guilty. Feit became Lee's attorney in April.

"It's my hope that what took place that night will be allowed to be part of a court proceeding," Feit said. "I want to get the officers into court to talk about what they did."

The court case brought by Feit was first reported by The Alt.  The officers listed on Lee's arrest report are Louis Pefertti, Justin Ashe and  Christopher Parker. The Alt identified Kyle Jones as the fourth officer.

If Maier grants the motion, it would restore the original charges filed against Lee: third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, third-degree robbery, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, possession of marijuana and first-degree loitering.  In 2011, Lee was convicted of attempted second-degree robbery.

Lee pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drug charge and was expected to be sentenced to three years probation. Lee had undergone back surgery several months before the March 3 incident and Feit said promised sentence would have allowed Lee to get medical care from his physician.

Feit asked Troy Police Chief Brian Owens to investigate the officers’ actions during the March 3 arrest and a subsequent April 24 incident in which, he said, Lee and a relative were taken from a parked car by police, who “in a highly threatening manner, both physically and verbally seized both men forcibly, and put them on the ground in handcuffs.”

The two men were not charged and were released at the scene.

A police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incidents.

The Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office has filed a response opposing the motion to vacate Lee’s plea.