A police officer suspended after shooting the husband of a woman he was “visiting” is appealing a judge’s decision to throw out his $1 million lawsuit against the agency’s chief spokesman.
Officer Andre Robinson, who filed a $1 million lawsuit against police spokesman Sterling Clifford and the Police Department in Baltimore City Circuit Court — alleging his privacy was invaded when Clifford spoke to the media about an internal investigation against Robinson — is now contesting Baltimore City Circuit Judge Brooke Murdock’s dismissal of his suit.
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Murdock tossed the suit after hearing arguments from Assistant City Solicitor Sabrina Willis, who wrote that Clifford’s statements about the Oct. 13, 2007, police-involved shooting were “innocuous.”
“Not every fact about a person … rises to the level of invasion of privacy,” Willis wrote.
In the lawsuit, Robinson’s attorney, Neal Janey, wrote that Clifford’s statements were “false” and that “the media relied upon those false statements … with slanted and misleading headlines in numerous articles.”
Janey did not take issue with Clifford speaking about Robinson’s shooting of Derrick Cook, 39, but objected to Clifford mentioning an internal affairs investigation into Robinson, which is private and confidential, according to the lawsuit.
Police said Robinson was on duty in his patrol car at 7:30 p.m. “visiting” with a woman on the 3000 block of Dupont Avenue in West Baltimore when Cook, the woman’s husband, approached the vehicle with a tire iron and began beating on the car.
Robinson, stationed in the Northern District, confronted Cook, who continued acting aggressively, causing the officer to retreat.
When the officer told Cook to “drop the tire iron,” the man did not, and Robinson fired his gun twice, police said.
It’s unclear whether Robinson knew the woman was married, police said.
“He’s being investigated for being off his post for personal reasons while on duty. … Was he justified in using his weapon? It appears the use of force was justified,” Clifford told The Examiner after the shooting.
Willis argued that Robinson has failed to point out what was “highly offensive” about Clifford’s statements.
“It was not unreasonable for defendant Clifford to assure the public that the actions of plaintiff, including why he was off post, were being investigated by [the internal affairs department],” she wrote. “… There is no question that at the time of the shooting, Robinson was in uniform, in a marked police car, in duty status, outside of his assigned work post and accompanied by the wife of the man he shot.”
Janey could not be reached for comment.
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