ST. MARYS – St. Marys City Council had a heated meeting Monday
night when resident Joe Penfield accused the police and city of
covering up police misconduct.
He added that City Manager Dave Greene as well as Police Chief
Todd Caltagarone were derelict in their duties.
“Please don’t mistake my comments as mere blowing off steam,”
Penfield said.
Penfield said he has been in contact with the Office of the
Attorney General, who isn’t concerned about the police misconduct,
but is more concerned with the way the city is handling the
situation. He claims there has been intimidation and people
spreading rumors about him since he first made the situation public
two weeks ago.
Penfield said he approached Caltagarone six weeks ago about the
situation and was told it would be looked into, but nothing has
been done.
Caltagarone explained the problem stemmed from a seatbelt
mobilization with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
held May 18 through June 7. There are two types of programs –
passive and active.
“The night in question was a passive detail,” Caltagarone said.
“All that happened was the officers were counting vehicles and
urging people to wear seatbelts. This is one of the reasons we do
this, to encourage seatbelt usage.”
He said the officer didn’t stop a single car and no citations
were issued during the two-week program. The program specifically
states that motorists are not to be stopped, it’s for observation
only. There were no complaints about the program, except for
Penfield’s.
The police chief said Penfield was claiming the officers used
that chance to look for people driving under the influence of
alcohol instead.
“He rambled and rambled about us using this program to look for
DUIs or as we call them now DAIs (driving after imbibing),”
Caltagarone said of Penfield. “He wasn’t interested in receiving
what I was saying about the program. After I received his
complaints, I wanted to look into them. He could not provide me
with the officer’s name or badge number.
“I did still look into it and found no wrongdoing,” the chief
told council. “No vehicles were stopped. Not a single DUI arrest
was made on this detail. When I asked for (Penfield’s) phone
number, he refused and he said he wanted no further contact about
it.”
Caltagarone added that there have been other issues with
Penfield, but again he found no wrongdoing on his officers’ part.
“I don’t think there’s any way we can satisfy Mr. Penfield.”
Penfield shouted out that Caltagarone was lying and Mayor Sally
Geyer asked him to take his issues to the next level if he feels
it’s necessary. He continued to shout and was asked to leave the
meeting.
The next meeting of city council is slated for 7 p.m. Sept. 8 in
council chambers.
