Meadville City Council members authorized a $200,000 settlement award to a former Allegheny College student at its Tuesday, Sept. 3, meeting.
The settlement is related to a 2019 incident in which Kobe Pinkney was arrested by Meadville City Police and wrongly charged for an assault at Julian’s Bar and Grill after the investigating officer demonstrated a “reckless disregard for the truth,” according to a recent court ruling. Pinkney filed a lawsuit in 2019 against the city of Meadville, Allegheny College and seven additional parties seeking compensatory and punitive damages for a variety of civil rights violations.
The recent settlement names three of the nine original defendants: former Meadville Police Department Chief Michael Tautin, Officer Jared Frum and the city of Meadville. The claims against the other defendants, including Tautin, were previously dismissed. The settlement does not contain an admission of guilt, according to City Manager Maryann Menanno.
“The City of Meadville is pleased to have this unfortunate incident behind us,” Menanno said in reading from a prepared statement following the City Council meeting. “We hope that this settlement will help Mr. Pickney (sic) be able to move forward. The Meadville City Police Department strives to provide closure to the victims of crime and injustice. We largely owe our success in accomplishing this goal to the communities we serve and their unwavering support. Without the support of the community there would be no police department, and with no police department service and protection, there would be no community.”
Meadville Mayor Jaime Kinder said after the City Council meeting that the settlement is covered entirely by the city’s insurance and will not use any public or taxpayer dollars.
Earl Raynor, Pinkney’s attorney, said that he and Pinkney are pleased with the outcome.
“We feel that it was a fair resolution for all parties and everybody gets to move on,” Raynor said. “This was a very difficult thing for Kobe. His life was going one direction and then one fateful night, everything changed. He lost his football career…he had to, in effect, change career paths and goals. He did have a good landing, though. He transferred…he graduated and now he has a good job working, and I think that he’s on his way to recovering.”
Describing his frustration with the Meadville Tribune, Raynor said that even though a settlement has been reached, the case is not over.
“But every day, unfortunately, because the Meadville Tribune has not made any kind of recantation — they haven’t taken down the initial stories regarding the assault,” Raynor said. “Everyday, he’s approached by people who say they saw something on the internet about him assaulting someone, when it didn’t happen.”
Raynor said he, Pinkney, and Pinkney’s mother are planning to pursue a defamation lawsuit against the Meadville Tribune and may also appeal the motions to dismiss involving Allegheny College and college-related parties.
The pivotal hours Raynor referred to occurred during the early morning hours of April 7, 2019. At Julian’s Bar and Grill, an Allegheny alumnus was assaulted and later sent to UPMC Hamot in Erie for immediate reconstructive surgery. The victim’s mother told police that he had to have emergency surgery requiring three plates and 15 pins to repair the left side of his face, according to Meadville Tribune reporting at the time.
On April 10, the Meadville city police interviewed a witness to the assault, Duncan Freeland, ’19, in the Office of Public Safety. Freeland said he was waiting in line for the restroom at Julian’s on the night of April 7 when “an African American boy about 6’ tall” with “some kind of braids” approached the victim, tapped him on the shoulder and then punched the left side of his face, according to the probable cause affidavit filed by the police in the case.
Though Freeland had not recognized the attacker at first, a friend of the victim later tried to jog his memory by sending him three photos, according to Pinkney’s original lawsuit. In all three, Pinkney was the only Black man. According to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling denying Frum’s appeal, Freeland thought that Pinkney “look[ed] an awful lot like” the attacker, but never explicitly and unequivocally named Pinkney as the attacker. He also repeatedly pointed out that Pinkney did not wear braids in his hair while the man he saw assault the victim just a few days prior did.
Using Freeland’s witness statement, Frum sought and obtained an arrest warrant for Pinkney, and Pinkney was removed from a philosophy class on April 11 by former Interim Director of Public Safety William Merchbaker. He was then taken into custody by Meadville city police prior to being arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Samuel Pendolino. After the arraignment, he was transported to Crawford County jail before posting the $5,000 bail a few hours later, according to Campus reporting at the time.
The charges against Pinkney were withdrawn by the Crawford County District Attorney’s Office on May 14, 2019, according to Campus reporting at the time.
Pinkney’s original lawsuit stated Pinkney was not present at Julian’s Bar and Grill when the attack occurred. According to the lawsuit, Pinkney’s mother provided a McDonald’s receipt “which had been stamped date and time of (1 a.m. April 9), which was coincident with the date and time of the assault against” the victim. The lawsuit also said that college records showed Pinkney checking into his dorm room at 1:15 a.m. and that Pinkney did not have braids in his hair at the time.
Additionally, according to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, several witnesses came forward in Pinkney’s defense. Freeland then recanted his identification, according to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
As claims against several defendants were dismissed, Pinkney’s claims of false arrest and malicious prosecution against the city of Meadville and Frum proceeded. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania twice considered Frum’s claim of qualified immunity, both times denying his motion to dismiss.
After Frum appealed the most recent ruling, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in March denied his appeal, instead finding that Frum had violated Pinkney’s rights.
The Court found that during Frum’s witness interview of Freeland, Frum never probed how well Freeland could observe the assault, nor asked how Pickney resembled the attacker. Rather, he asked several leading questions assuming Pickney committed the assault. The Court ruled that Frum had demonstrated a reckless disregard of the truth by misrepresenting information in the warrant application, overstating the certainty of the witness, ignoring inconsistencies, and omitting key facts — all of which were deemed material to the finding of probable cause and, thus, a violation of Pickney’s rights.
“A police officer may not put on blinders and then claim ignorance,” the court wrote. “A single witness identification, without more, must have at least basic signs of reliability to amount to probable cause. That bar is not high; either corroboration or an appropriate witness interview may suffice. But based on the facts alleged, neither happened here. So Officer Frum violated Pinkney’s Fourth Amendment rights by arresting him without probable cause.”