Attorney for EMT calls for RPD Investigator to be fired

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — You’ve likely seen the video of a Rochester Police investigator pushing an EMT into a desk and handcuffing her inside the emergency room at Strong Memorial Hospital while she was tending to a patient. The incident happened last Monday, and the EMT had hit the Investigator’s car in the Ambulance bay while unloading a patient. He asked for her ID, but she kept walking with her patient.

The Rochester Police Department has suspended the investigator while it conducts an internal investigation but so far, has refused to identify him. News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke has confirmed through a number of highly placed sources that the investigator is Charles LoTempio and this is not the first time he has been suspended by RPD.

“This officer lost his cool,” says Elliot Shields, an Attorney for EMT Lekia Smith who is seen in the video. Her reaction was, "I have a priority-one call I need to get my patient inside, my identification is in the front seat and as soon as I make sure that my patient is inside and receiving the emergency medical treatment that they need I will get you my identification,” Shields tells News10NBC.

News10NBC did some digging into public disciplinary records and found two prior incidents involving Charles LoTempio. In April of 2013, a letter of reprimand was placed in his file following an incident where he performed a strip search of a man that included visually checking his private area without a search warrant.

An internal RPD investigation also found that in December of 2013, LoTempio used “unnecessary and/or excessive force” when he struck a man in the mouth with a flashlight while making an arrest. That man reported losing four teeth and chipping two others. Internal affairs also found that LoTempio submitted an erroneous “subject resistance report” following that incident. At the time, then-Police Chief Michael Ciminelli recommended that LoTempio be suspended for 60-days without pay. Ultimately, LoTempio pleaded guilty to both charges and was suspended for 30-days without pay.

“We don’t need officers like LoTempio out there making the City Of Rochester look bad, making the Rochester Police Department look bad and endangering the lives of people in the City of Rochester,” Shields says.

In a statement, the Rochester Locust Club says in part, “the incident in question reached a mutually acceptable resolution that day when both the investigator and the EMT were able to jointly discuss the reasons for their actions and both accepted each other’s explanations.”

Smith’s attorney says that’s not exactly how it went. “After my client was arrested, put in handcuffs, and placed in the back of the vehicle. LoTempio eventually got into the back of the vehicle with her and said you know this all could’ve been avoided if you had just said ‘my bad’—Well, that’s placing the blame on her when he’s the one that did everything wrong, it’s that alternate reality that is the problem. It’s his inability to see and accept responsibility for his actions that’s the problem and we don’t need officers like that on the streets in the City of Rochester,” Shields says.

A spokesman for Strong Memorial Hospital tells News10NBC that the Ambulance bay is shared by all first responders on official business. It’s already a small area, made smaller by recent construction. No official accident report was filed with URMC Security but RPD did request both interior and exterior video from the area for its internal investigation.