Hearing Opens On Whether To Try Police For Robbery
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A hearing has started to decide if two off-duty police sergeants should stand trial on accusations that they robbed three men they suspected of stealing a cellphone that belonged to one officer's teenage daughter.
St. Clair Shores Police Sgt. Michael Notoriano and Detroit Police Sgt. David Pomeroy face armed robbery and other charges.
Detroit District Judge Joseph Baltimore opened a probable-cause hearing Thursday. It's schedule to continue next Monday and Wednesday.
Authorities say Notoriano's 16-year-old daughter and her friend biked to a Detroit gas station on July 20, where a man threw her to the ground and robbed her of her iPhone before running off.
Prosecutors say Pomeroy and Notoriano traced the phone to Detroit, where they confronted three men at gunpoint the next day. According to court documents, Pomeroy allegedly took a handgun from the men, along with the stolen iPhone, while Notoriano took $300 and marijuana before striking one of the men with a gun.
Pomeroy has been charged with armed robbery, two counts of unlawful imprisonment, larceny of a firearm, willful neglect of duty (exercise of unlawful procedure), and two counts of failure to uphold the law (unlawful search, seizure and detention).
Notoriano has been charged with armed robbery, two counts of unlawful imprisonment, two counts felonious assault, two counts of ethnic intimidation, felony firearm, willful neglect of duty (exercise of unlawful procedure), and two counts of failure to uphold the law (unlawful search, seizure and detention).
Pomeroy's lawyer Michael Rataj has said the charges are excessive.
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