ERIE – A federal judge has dismissed in its entirety a complaint brought by a former Allegheny College student who was wrongfully accused of assault against a school alumnus in a Meadville bar by both law enforcement and a local newspaper.
The events began with an assault on a man named at a Meadville establishment named Julian’s Bar on April 7, 2019 - an assault allegedly committed because the assailant suspected him of drugging a young woman found unconscious in the bathroom at the same establishment the night before.
The man was taken to Meadville Medical Center and later transferred to UPMC Hamot for immediate reconstructive surgery.
A witness later described the assailant as being an African-American male, about six feet tall with braided hair, who walked up to the victim when he was in line for the restroom, tapped him on the shoulder and punched him in the left side of the face when he turned around. After being shown a photo of plaintiff Kobe Pinkney, the witness identified him as the assailant.
Pinkney was then removed from class and arrested by Sgt. William Merchbaker on April 11, 2019, on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct. Pinkney was taken to the Crawford County jail, but posted a $5,000 bond later that same day.
Defendant Keith Gushard reported the assault and Pinkney’s arrest in the Meadville Tribune on April 15, 2019, identifying his name, home address, the suspected motivations behind the assault and that he allegedly had “hit another man in the face so hard the victim had to have emergency surgery.”
However, other witnesses came forward to say that Pinkney was not at Julian’s Bar that night and was therefore not responsible for the assault. Evidence was later uncovered that detailed Pinkney had instead been at a fraternity party that evening, left the party, purchased food from a McDonald’s restaurant and checked back into his dormitory at the very same time the assault had occurred.
Forensic evidence also concluded Pinkney was not responsible, as further accounts linked another African-American man named Josiah Williams as the actual assailant.
After the initial article, Pinkney’s counsel emailed the newspaper detailing this evidence, but claimed the newspaper did not respond to the message or publish another story outlining the information which appeared to clear Pinkney of involvement in the crime.
The Commonwealth dropped all charges against Pinkney on May 14, 2019.
Another story then appeared in the Meadville Tribune on May 16, 2019, which explained the charges were dropped, but also restated the initial allegations against Pinkney, while not including the information provided by his counsel that indicated he was not the assailant.
It did include comments from defendant Paula DiGiacomo, first assistant district attorney for Crawford County, who said the charges against Pinkney were withdrawn “until the rest of the case can be investigated” and confirmed he was still a suspect.
On June 6, 2019, Pinkney filed a 12-count lawsuit against the Borough of Meadville, Chief of Police Michael J. Tautin, Patrolman Jared Frum, Merchbaker, DiGiacomo, Allegheny College, Community Newspaper Holding, Inc., the Meadville Tribune and its reporter, Gushard.
Included were claims of racial discrimination, false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, false light defamation and invasion of privacy.
However, despite the later evidence of Pinkney’s exoneration, U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard A. Lanzillo said in his dismissal ruling April 3 at the time of the initial events, probable cause existed to arrest him and the officers involved were entitled to qualified immunity. Additionally, Lanzillo said Pinkney failed to show that the Borough of Meadville and Tautin had a custom in failing to properly train its officers or that the defendants treated him with any discrimination or violated his due process rights.
“The complaint acknowledges that [police] did not arbitrarily identify Pinkney as a suspect in the assault simply based on his race conforming to the description, but rather based upon information that included an eyewitness’s identification,” Lanzillo said.
In dismissing all of Pinkney’s federal claims, Lanzillo declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over his remaining state law claims against DiGiacomo and the newspaper defendants.
Counsel for Pinkney motioned to re-open the case on April 8.
The plaintiff is represented by Earl DuBois Raynor Jr. in Philadelphia.
The defendants are represented by Patrick M. Carey, G. Michael Garcia II and G. Jay Habas of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin in Erie, Jeffrey Weimer of Reed Smith, plus Charles Kelly and John A. Marty III of Saul Ewing, all in Pittsburgh.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 1:19-cv-00167
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com