Former RPD chief Singletary settled because ‘it was not about breaking the bank’ of Rochester

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — After settling his lawsuit against the city, former Rochester police chief La’Ron Singletary spoke to us about it Monday.

We reached Singletary on Long Island, the site of the Republican Party state nominating convention.

Singletary is running for congress against Joe Morelle. The election is in November 2022.

In the settlement deal with the city, Singletary gets a one-time payment and the same health care package he would have received if he was allowed to retire.

Brean: "Why was this the right thing to do for you?"

La’Ron Singletary: "It was the right thing to do for me because for me it was not about breaking the bank of the city of Rochester. It was about showing compromise and more so, it was about the people."

The settlement with the city cuts Singletary a check for $75,000, about half a year of his salary as the chief and it gets him health care where the city pays 90% until Singletary gets Medicare.

"Which based on our economic estimation, the value of that health care is about $600,000," he said.

When Singletary sued the city and former mayor Lovely Warren in September the demand was $1.5 million.

In that lawsuit, Singletary said he was wrongly fired by Mayor Warren in the middle of nightly protests over the death of Daniel Prude.

Brean: "Are you still upset about what happened?"

Singletary: "No, there comes a point when we have to move forward."

Singletary went on to say "on September 8th, 2020, I didn’t know what was next but I did hear God say ‘move.’"

Sept. 8, 2020, is when Singletary announced he was retiring. The former mayor fired him a week later and before his official retirement date.

Singletary registered as a republican last August. In November, he announced he is running for Congress against Democrat Joe Morelle.

Brean: "Would you rather be the police chief in Rochester or would you rather be doing what you’re doing now which is running for congress?"

Singletary: "When one door closes, another door opens… As a police chief, I could only impact so much change. But as a congressman, you can enact a lot of change. You can have influence on a lot of things to include legislation and also assistance that comes to your district."

One of the stipulations in the settlement is that the parties can’t say anything bad about each other.

According to the federal court database, Singletary is still a defendant in three federal lawsuits including one filed by the children of Daniel Prude.