March 19--Former Warren assistant city attorney Jeffrey Schroder is suing Warren and two city police officers over his 2009 drunken-driving arrest.
Schroder's DUI charge went to a trial, where the jury took about 15 minutes to acquit him, according to the lawsuit. Now Schroder says the arrest was retaliation. He is asking for damages on five counts, including malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and false arrest.
The officers named in the suit are Lt. Stephen Colegio and Officer Jason Booms.
The lawsuit filed last month alleges that Mayor James Fouts and his then-assistant, Kelly Colegio, Stephen Colegio's wife, blamed Schroder for critical remarks made about them on www.warrenforum.net. Kelly Colegio is now a city councilwoman.
Schroder is now an attorney with the Michigan Attorney General's Office. He denies he ever made any remarks or had anything do to with the site, which often criticizes the mayor.
Schroder alleges the harassment started in 2008 after Kelly Colegio convinced the mayor that Schroder made "disparaging statements" about her on the site. Later that year, Fouts became upset about other remarks on the forum about one of his appointments, the filing says.
During the next few months, Fouts called Schroder to his office several times to question him about his involvement with the Warren Forum, even demanding to see his cell phone records, the filings say.
The lawsuit includes more than six pages about Fouts' and Colegio's alleged accusations that Schroder used the blog to criticize the pair.
"They're relying on all theses nonsense allegations," attorney Raechel Badalamenti said. "It was obviously a very valid (traffic) stop."
Fouts, who is not named as a defendant, referred all questions the city's attorneys, who are trying to get the pages removed from the lawsuit. A hearing is set for April 24 in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan.
Schroder's attorney Jay Schwartz said the allegations about Fouts and Kelly Colegio show the traffic stop was an "abuse of government power."
"In my view, there was a witch-hunt targeting my client," Schwartz said.
Other allegations from the lawsuit:
-- Fouts canceled Schroder's January 2009 vacation the day before it was to begin, because Fouts thought the trip was connected to destroying evidence of who posted comments on the site.
-- Fouts passed a general order prohibiting Warren staff from getting up and leaving the room when he entered after Schroder had done so.
-- In the midst of these confrontations, at 2:30 a.m. Feb. 13, 2009, Stephen Colegio stopped Schroder in his car, and asked if Schroder had been drinking alcohol. Booms, in a separate car, stopped to assist.
Colegio asked Schroder to go through the usual DUI checks. He successfully completed them but refused a Breathalyzer test.
At that point, he was arrested and taken into custody.
He had three Breathalyzer tests at the police station.
The first registered an invalid sample and the second registered 0.07% blood-alcohol level. The blood-alcohol level at which someone can be convicted of drunken driving in Michigan is 0.08%. A third test showed 0.08%.
Schroder asked for an independent blood test, which showed 0.07%.
Contact Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki: [email protected]
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