Mayor, cops and Indian officials meet tomorrow

Activist claims Indian man arrested at melee was assaulted

BY JOHN DUNPHY

Staff Writer

A local political activist has called for the immediate suspension of the Edison Township officer who responded to a fourth of July incident.

Pradip "Peter" Kothari, president of the Indo American Cultural Society, has arranged a meeting between Mayor Jun Choi, police officials and members of the Asian-Indian community at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Shezan Restaurant on Oak Tree Road to discuss the issue.

Kothari claims a member of the Indian community was assaulted by Patrolman Michael Dotro.

Rajnikant Parikh, 30, of Dayton Drive, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, rioting and failure to disperse at 10 p.m. on July Fourth, said Lt. Joseph Shannon.

Kothari, a local political activist who is now representing Parikh, said the police statement provided by Dotro is false. He said the officer should be suspended while an investigation is conducted.

Michael Schwarz, president of Policemen's Benevolent Association Local 75, has called Kothari's allegations unsubstantiated and has questioned the political activist's credibility in representing the alleged suspect.

Police said Parikh and a group of about 15 other men surrounded Dotro, who had been one of several officers called to the area to disperse a crowd of hundreds who had congregated on the street around the Hilltop and Trafalger apartments. Unknown partygoers had blocked intersections and fire hydrants with their cars and set off illegal fireworks.

Dotro attempted to locate the owner of a vehicle that was

blocking an intersection, according to the report. When he was unable to locate the owner, he began to write up a summons for the illegally parked vehicle. At that point, a group of men, led by Parikh, began to approach Dotro, Shannon said.

"One of them [Parikh] was trying to incite friends to assault the officer," he said, quoting the report. "The officer advised them to disperse. They did not. He was able to step away from them and asked again."

When the group refused to disperse, Dotro placed Parikh under arrest, Shannon said. While Dotro was attempting to handcuff him, Parikh elbowed and punched the officer in the face. Both men fell to the ground, according to reports.

Patrolman Jeff Tierney arrived at this time and both officers were able to subdue Parikh, Shannon said.

His bail was set at $50,000 with a 10 percent option. Parikh posted bail and was released that night, Shannon said. Police said they could smell alcohol on Parikh's breath at the time of booking, Shannon said. However, no breath test was administered.

Dotro sustained minor injuries as a result of the struggle with the assailant, including scrapes to his arm and swelling to his face, Shannon said.

In total, about eight officers were on the scene that night to break up the massive crowd that had gathered for the Independence Day celebrations, he said.

But Parikh, who lives in one of the apartments on the street, wasn't celebrating, said Kothari.

"He was working all afternoon," he said.

Kothari said Parikh and his wife left their home to go for a walk, when Parikh "realized he'd not checked his mail for two or three days."

His mailbox was located in front of the apartment complex, where many of the revelers were congregated, Kothari said.

When Parikh returned to the front of the apartment complex, he saw a few people he knew and began talking to them, Kothari said. That is when officer Dotro approached him.

"He asked him 'is this your car?'" Kothari said. "He said 'no.'"

Kothari said Dotro then got very angry and yelled obscenities. He grabbed Parikh by the neck and threw him on the car's hood. He then put Parikh on the ground to handcuff him and beat him, Kothari said.

"At that point, he was almost unconscious," he said.

Kothari questioned why only Dotro and another officer, which he could not identify, would be involved in this incident when there were at least five or six more officers on the scene.

"Their story does not stand," he said. "How can that story stand? Of the 700, 800 people there, how could they arrest one person?"

Kothari demanded Dotro be suspended until a full investigation is done.

"They are there to protect," he said. "If anyone broke the law, arrest them politely. They should not beat up."

Schwarz said the police department is "by law allowed to escalate 'use of force.'"

"We're not going to allow people to hurt us or attack us," he said. "We're going to use any means necessary. We're not there to get attacked, we're there to get control of the crowd."

Schwarz said the officers involved in the incident should be commended for being able to regulate a rowdy situation with hundreds of people and only have to make one arrest.

"We didn't go there because we had nothing better to do," he said. "Out of all the people in the crowd, one person chose not to comply with the orders of the police to disperse and be orderly, so he was indeed arrested."

Schwarz said Kothari's demand for Dotro's suspension pending an investigation is "as ignorant as us saying the man involved should be in jail right now."

"You don't demand suspension without due process and ruin his [Dotro's] credibility," Schwarz said.

Dotro was one of the officers accused of assaulting two India Day volunteers last year. He was cleared of all charges earlier this year.

Kothari issued a press statement Monday, which stated "both incidents involved Officer Dotro who filed false allegations against Mr. Parikh."

"Many Indo-Americans have come to fear the police department and have come to suspect the true intentions of the force," Kothari said.

Schwarz admitted the department has been "under a microscope" due to the frequency of issues regarding some individual officers but said "bottom line is, we have a lot of good officers who are trying to do their jobs."

"I've worked here for seven years," he said. "As far as I knew, we've always had a phenomenal relationship with the [Indo-American] community."

Kothari said the goal of the meeting "is to eliminate racial prejudices that may exist within the department and assure our community that the police are here to protect them and not brutalize them."

The mayor urged all sides to stay calm.

"As of now, the facts are still not available to us," he said. "I'm urging everyone not to jump the gun on this."

Choi said the township had already taken several measures toward improving the police department, including the commission of a review by the state Department of Community Affairs, as well as a blue ribbon commission review of the department. A new professional standards unit has also been established, which carries the ability to investigate officers for inappropriate activities, he said.

"It's important we nip these problems in the bud," he said. "Clearly, there's some misunderstanding going on. We need to communicate very clearly as to what the different perceptions are."