Pitt asks for federal lawsuit by former officer Michael Rosfeld to be dismissed
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The University of Pittsburgh has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by former Pitt police officer Michael Rosfeld, alleging his claims have no standing and reassuring students the school has no designs on bringing Rosfeld back to the force.
“Please be assured that the University of Pittsburgh Police Department has no intention of reinstating Michael Rosfeld,” Pitt police officials wrote in a statement. Rosfeld worked as a university cop from October 2012 until January 2018.
University police officials could not immediately be reached for further comment.
Rosfeld, 32, was acquitted of homicide last year in the 2018 killing of 17-year-old Antwon Rose II while he was serving as an East Pittsburgh police officer. On June 19, 2018, Rosfeld stopped a car in which Rose was a passenger, suspecting it was involved in a drive-by shooting minutes earlier. Rose and his teenaged companion ran from the car, and Rosfeld opened fire, hitting Rose in the back three times.
Rosfeld was charged with homicide, and he was acquitted nine months later after a four-day trial.
Rose’s name has come back into local consciousness amid days of protests against police brutality sparked by the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Chants of Rose’s name and “Three shots to the back, how you justify that?” have been frequent rallying cries at the protests.
A petition created in April 2019, not long after Rosfeld’s acquittal, began circulating again on social media last week. The Change.org petition calls for Gov. Tom Wolf to “stop Michael Rosfeld from regaining his badge.”
It is not clear what prompted the petition to resurface.
Rosfeld has an ongoing lawsuit against the University of Pittsburgh, claiming he was forced from his post there in early 2018 because of charges he filed against the son of a university official.
The charges and arrests came after a December 2017 incident at the Garage Door Saloon in Oakland. Charges were filed against several men after they allegedly became combative when they were thrown out of the bar. They were charged with assault, though the charges were dropped a week later.
Two of the men filed a lawsuit in mid-2018, alleging the arrests were unlawful. They dropped their case several months later.
A motion to dismiss Rosfeld’s lawsuit was filed by the university on Wednesday, with officials saying that Rosfeld’s claims he was coerced to resign or face firing is “not so.”
The lawsuit, first filed in January, alleges Rosfeld was forced from his post without due process. He said he was placed on administrative leave for around six weeks after the December 2017 arrests, and when he returned for a meeting with police officials the following month, he was presented with termination papers.
According to the lawsuit, Rosfeld was under duress when he added to the papers: “I, Michael Rosfeld, resign effective immediately.”
The lawsuit alleges that Rosfeld resigned because the only other option was to be fired. He also said university police officials have since altered the paperwork he signed.
Among the lawsuit’s demands is the immediate reinstating of Rosfeld as a Pitt police officer.
The statement Sunday night from Pitt police was “in response to inquiries” and noted that the university continues “vigorously opposing” the federal lawsuit.