ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The EMT who was handcuffed in the middle of Strong Memorial Hospital’s emergency room while she had a patient on the stretcher tells News10NBC she’s furious about the punishment handed down to the Rochester Police Detective who did it.

Investigator Charles LoTempio will remain on paid suspension until March of 2025. At that time, he will retire from the Rochester Police Department and be eligible to collect his pension but will have his status as a police officer in New York State revoked.

Rochester Police Chief Dave Smith suspended LoTempio with pay a few days after the incident. LoTempio has continued to earn his $113,392 salary for the past two years and two months while sitting at home waiting for the disciplinary process to play out.

“I was furious that he was still getting paid after two years, I was furious that they still will allow him to keep his pension, and I’m furious that I wasn’t able to tell my story,” Lekia Smith says.

Smith was working for Monroe Ambulance when she pulled into the parking area in front of the emergency and got out of the rig to unload a patient. She admits she dinged the door of Investigator Charles Lotempio’s car with her door but says it was very minor and providing her ID was not her first priority. “My main focus at that moment was trying to get my patient inside the hospital so he could get the care that he needed,” Smith says.

Lotempio followed her into the emergency room, borrowed a set of handcuffs from another law enforcer and forcefully took her into custody. Smith says she was injured when she was shoved up against the desk and had her arms pulled behind her back. “I can’t do what I love, I can’t do what I actually went to school for because of the injuries,” Smith says, “I have an impingement in my right shoulder, I’m in chronic pain because of the impingement, I may even need surgery. I’m unable to lift patients, I’m unable to even lift a gurney, I’m actually on restrictions where I can’t lift more than 5 pounds.”

As News10NBC previously reported, Charles Lotempio had been disciplined twice by RPD before – once for using excessive force and once for unlawful search and seizure.

“I understand people have bad days and I get it but when it’s a pattern, that’s where it becomes a problem,” says Smith.

News10NBC reviewed more than 400 pages of documents related to that disciplinary process in this case. An internal RPD investigation found that LoTempio violated five of RPD’s general orders during the incident:
• Lack of justification for detaining/arresting
• Unnecessary and excessive use of force
• Failure to de-escalate
• Improper conduct
• Failure to double-lock handcuffs

Following the internal investigation, RPD command staff suggested LoTempio be terminated but under the union contract, police officers have the right to a hearing with an independent hearing officer. It took more than a year to find one who would take the case and in the end, the hearing officer found LoTempio not guilty of the top four charges, saying, “there was inadequate evidence to prove the charges by a ‘preponderance of the evidence.’” The only thing hearing officer Douglas Bantle agreed with RPD on was that LoTempio failed to double lock his handcuffs. His suggested punishment was a counseling memo or training.

Smith wonders if the arbitration hearing may have gone differently if she would have testified but, “they said that my lawyer couldn’t come inside with me which was kind of intimidating for me, being that I’m going inside of a room of officers,” she says.

She figured with his own superiors suggesting he be terminated, the hearing officer would agree. She was furious to find out, he did not. “I think that’s bogus, I feel as though he should be terminated and he shouldn’t get his pension,” Smith says.

Smith’s attorney Elliot Shields agrees, “I think this case highlights the broken disciplinary process for police officers in Rochester,” he tells News10NBC. “the Article 75 hearing officers’ findings were blatantly biased; how can justice be serviced when Lekia, the victim in this case, was denied the right to testify at the hearing with her attorney present?”

Sheilds has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the City of Rochester and the Rochester Police Department on Smith’s behalf.

“The Police Chief and the professional standards section recommended termination because they found LoTempio’s actions were inappropriate, that he had no basis to arrest Lekia in the first place and that he used excessive force, so it will be difficult for the city to take a different position in the federal lawsuit,” Shields says.