Opening Statements

22
Plaintiff's Opening
1
THE COURT:
MS. BOSMAN:
Thank you.
Opening statement, please.
Thank you, your Honor.
May it please
the Court, ladies and gentlemen of the jury:
This is a case
that will challenge you, both factually and about your
beliefs, your beliefs about race, your beliefs about the
right to complain about discrimination, your beliefs about
employment, law enforcement, all of those things that are
really current right now with what's been happening in the
news, with respect to police officers, how race is involved,
10
how it is perceived by the people that deal with law
11
enforcement.
12
uniform, and we give them the power because they can't have
13
any power but what we give them, because ours is a
14
Government by the people for the people.
15
weapons, we give them training, we give them all the tools
16
that they need in order to keep order in our society.
17
These men and women who put on a badge and a
We give them
A long time ago, Congress decided that the best
18
way for us to exist as a society is to ensure that there is
19
equal treatment, regardless of race, regardless of sex,
20
regardless of disability, regardless, everybody should be
21
treated the same.
22
that, we incorporated that in our Constitution, we
23
incorporate that in our laws.
24
25
Simple concept.
Founding Fathers said
What happened in the City of Ithaca Police

Department is not the usual circumstance, it's not typically
THERESA J. CASAL, RPR, CRR
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT - NDNY
23
Plaintiff's Opening
1
what you hear.
a police officer with the Ithaca Police Department for a
number of years and he saw something that troubled him, and
so he took his right under the law to complain, to file a
complaint, to make a complaint.
that under Title VII and under the laws that the Judge will
instruct you on when the time comes.
8
9
In this instance, Mr. Miller, my client, was
And he's entitled to do
Now, that's a pretty straightforward thing, you'd

think.
A Police Department is supposed to enforce the laws,
10
they know what they are, they know how people get treated,
11
and they're supposed to treat their own members the same.
12
But what Mr. Miller saw was what he described as
13
discrimination.
14
whether or not that occurred.
15
right to speak that complaint, the right to make that
16
complaint, the right to file that complaint, the right to
17
share that complaint with your supervisors, with the
18
administration, with the City of Ithaca itself, and the
19
fundamental concept here is that if Chris Miller is
20
retaliated against for doin' that, then so is everybody
21
else, so are the people that give him the badge, so are the
22
people that give them the power, so are the people that give
23
them the authority of the law.
Now, you're not going to be deciding

What we are here about is the
24
One of the ways that our democracy ensures that
25
that is preserved is by protecting the right of people to

24
Plaintiff's Opening
1
seek redress of grievances, to seek remedy, to voice
complaints.
discrimination and gender.
within the Ithaca Police Department were treated differently
based on race.
given more leniency, given more promotions, given better
working opportunities than white males were.
unusual, sometimes people call it reverse discrimination,
but from our perspective, discrimination is discrimination.
In 2005, Mr. Miller filed a complaint of race

He alleged that police officers
His position was that minority officers were
Now, that's
10
Doesn't matter if you're doing it against a white man,
11
doesn't matter if you're doing it against a black man.
12
you're doin' it because of color, if you're doin' it because
13
of race, gender, it's discrimination.
14
If
After he filed his complaint, he started being
15
retaliated against.
16
different forms.
17
being subjected to greater scrutiny, being subjected to
18
excessive discipline, being subjected to different standards
19
of performance than other officers who had not complained
20
about discrimination.
21
who is sayin', hey, wait a minute, the law doesn't allow
22
this, I am allowed to make a complaint, I am gonna make a
23
complaint and then you penalize me for that?
24
made a complaint about being retaliated against, as well.
25
That retaliation took a number of
One of the forms of that retaliation was
So, on the one hand you have somebody
And then he
Ultimately, those progressed between 2000 -- I

25
Plaintiff's Opening
1
think it was 2006 through 2010, four years, and there is a
series of events, some of which you'll hear about, some of
which you're here to decide what occurred.
period of time, Mr. Miller's employment with the Ithaca
Police Department became one where your reasonable, typical
employee, who was wearing a badge and carrying a gun, might
think twice, they might look at Chris Miller and say I'm not
gonna rock the boat, I'm not sayin' anything, I don't want
to be the next Miller, I don't want what happened to him to
During that
10
happen to me.
And that's exactly the basis upon which that
11
protection is afforded.
12
we can't be sure that we live in a democracy.
13
was Voltaire, I have a quote, it says, "To learn who rules
14
over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to
15
criticize."
16
departments are held accountable on the basis of that
17
fundamental concept.
18
in most cases, an organization like a police department
19
would do the right thing and address the complaint, maybe
20
recognize, maybe some self-analysis to say, hey, we got an
21
issue here, we have problems, somebody feels they're not
22
being treated fairly, how can we address that?
23
with the Ithaca Police Department.
24
Department, the first thing they did is he must be racist,
25
he must not like black people because he's complaining that
Because if we shut people up, then
So, who rules over the law?
I think it
Our police
We have the right to complaint, and,
No.
Not
With the Ithaca Police

26
Plaintiff's Opening
1
they're getting a hand up that he's not getting.
therefore, he must be prejudiced.
talk about having a stereotype.
that minorities are getting an advantage, then you must be
somebody who resents them for that.
So,
Talk about prejudging,

Well, if you're complaining
That's the furthest thing from the truth.
And you
may hear testimony in this case from the defendants that'll
make ya start to think, well, wait a minute, who's on trial
here?
Because immediately, after Mr. Miller filed his
10
complaints, they started and they did not stop.
One of the
11
things that they did to him, in May of 2000 -- in May of
12
2007, I believe it was -- no, 2009, Mr. Miller was
13
approached by one of the individuals that he had identified
14
in his Human Rights complaint, in a parking lot, confronted,
15
accused of being a racist, and so he reported that, he said
16
wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be treated like that, I
17
have a right to do this, and how come that woman was saying
18
that to me?
19
additional discipline, he was subjected to penalties you'll
20
hear about, and then he was subjected to his personnel files
21
being sent over to the District Attorney's Office to try and
22
prosecute him for a crime.
23
didn't prosecute him, but you'll see the letter that the
24
District Attorney sent after Mr. Miller was out on leave
25
that basically said he can't testify again as a police
As a result of that, he was subjected to
He didn't commit a crime, the DA

27
Plaintiff's Opening
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officer.
courtroom, was his Lieutenant.
respected in the community, he was Mr. Miller's Lieutenant,
and what he did is he assigned Mr. Miller all of his regular
beat assignments, you'll hear this beat assignment thing, he
assigned him his beat assignment because he filed and made a
complaint of discrimination.
would deter a reasonable employee from making complaints?
We submit yes, it is.
10
11
And Mr. Byrd, Marlon Byrd, who is here in the

African-American male, well
Now, is that something that
And you'll hear testimony in that
regard.
And where was he assigned?
He was assigned to
12
something called The Commons, which is a central part of the
13
City of Ithaca, where some of you who have been to Ithaca
14
before, you're familiar with The Commons, it's a walking
15
area, cars don't drive through there, there's shops and so
16
forth, and that beat, that assignment, was reserved for the
17
officers who were new, new on the job, didn't have a lot of
18
experience, or close to retirement and they elected to be
19
part of that unit, or they were assigned on that unit as a
20
basis because of need.
21
Mr. Miller.
22
up with reasons why, even though they've changed that,
23
shifted that, the bottom line is it's retaliation.
24
of the things that you're gonna hear about is that that was
25
actually something that had happened before, it had been
None of those fit the category for
Even though the defendants have tried to come

And one
28
Plaintiff's Opening
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done before, and if we don't do something about it, it's
gonna be done again.
Now, is Mr. Byrd responsible for everything that
happened to Mr. Miller?
No, of course not, absolutely not.
The City of Ithaca, the City of Ithaca Police Department
encourages and involves the Police Department in this
customary practice.
filed a Human Rights complaint.
at the Human Rights Division in Binghamton, New York, on
They were aware, they knew that he had

He actually had a hearing
10
July 20th of 2009.
11
to additional retaliation, he was subjected to additional
12
changes in the work conditions, terms of employment, and he
13
was singled out like nobody else was.
14
legitimate reason for that, that is the evidence that you
15
will hear, that is the issues that you will decide.
16
Following that hearing, he was subjected
And there is no
When retaliation is alleged, for complaining about
17
discrimination, one of the things that the people who are
18
retaliating will do is say, no, no, no, no, no.
19
that because of his Human Rights complaint, I did it because
20
he's a bad employee, or I did that because I needed somebody
21
there, or I did that because of some other reason.
22
that pretext, because they're pretending, and they'll go to
23
whatever lengths they need to in order to pretend that the
24
real reason was because he was complaining about things that
25
they didn't think were wrong or they didn't want to fix or

I didn't do
We call
29
Defendants' Opening
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they didn't want to admit, which you will see is the
shifting explanation.
see from your own lives is that when people offer changing
explanations for things, one day it's one thing, the next
day it's another thing, it tends to make ya think, well,
that's not really the reason, is it?
considering the evidence and listening to the witnesses, and
you're looking at their demeanor, and you're looking --
you'll get some documents to read, consider what you
And one of the things that you can
So, when you're
10
yourself would do under those circumstances, and consider
11
how you would feel if it was done to you.
12
Now, what we're all about here is getting to the
13
truth and what you will hear is the truth and the evidence
14
and the testimony that you will consider will lead you to
15
the conclusion that my client, Mr. Miller, was retaliated
16
against, not because he was -- he wasn't treated that way
17
because he was a bad cop, he's not a bad cop, he was treated
18
that way because he called them on their discrimination and
19
then he called them on their retaliation because if you can
20
silence someone for complaining about discrimination, we
21
will never be equal, we will never be treated equally.
22
is not something that is reserved only for minorities,
23
although we know historically that that's the reason the law
24
was adopted, but when they adopted that law, they did not
25
say it's only for one race, only for one gender, it doesn't
It
30
Defendants' Opening
1
say that.
White men can be discriminated against and that
is what Mr. Miller complained about and you, ladies and
gentlemen, at the conclusion of the proof, I believe, will
find that my client was retaliated against for complaining
about discrimination.
THE COURT:
MR. WAGNER:
Thank you.
Thank you.
Defense, please.
Thank you, your Honor.
Ladies and
gentlemen, as I introduced myself before, I'm Paul Wagner
and I represent the City and the defendants that you see
10
here today.
11
experience sitting over at that table among those four
12
gentlemen, over a hundred years.
13
started out in patrol, Ed Vallely worked his way up to
14
Chief, then happily retired and has been fishing for a year.
15
John Barber is the current Chief, started in patrol.
16
Tyler, Deputy Chief, started in patrol.
17
Byrd started in patrol.
18
happily gone from the agency for good reasons, they're all
19
officers in good standing.
20
officer and you're gonna hear why during this case.
21
You have over a hundred years of police
Home grown, Ithaca,
Pete
Lieutenant Marlon
Other than Mr. Vallely, who is
Mr. Miller is no longer a police
Ms. Bosman was correct about the discrimination
22
law and that it protects everybody and retaliation law that
23
protects everybody, and that's a very important point, it's
24
the one thing that we'll agree upon in this case.
25
failed to tell you is why Mr. Miller found himself in the

What she
31
Defendants' Opening
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unfortunate situation that he's in today and, more
importantly, the issue you're to decide is actually quite
narrow despite the breadth of her presentation, whether he
was assigned certain beats in 2009 because of retaliation or
because of a legitimate operational reason.
So, these are the beats (indicating), 13 shifts,
13 shifts in the summer of 2009 is why we are here.
We are
in a federal case, a federal courthouse, making a federal
claim over 13 beats.
These aren't magic beats, these aren't
10
special beats, these aren't even more difficult beats than
11
the ones he preferred; they're just not the ones he liked.
12
So you're gonna have to ask yourself the question:
13
the City of Ithaca assign him?
14
that I want to broaden it back out as Miss Bosman did.
15
Why did
But before we even get to
She talked about the reasonable, typical employee,
16
reasonable typical police officer.
Ladies and gentlemen,
17
very, very deep respect, Mr. Miller is neither reasonable or
18
typical as a police officer.
19
that preceding his 2000 -- his first Human Rights complaint
20
in 2006, this man engaged in behavior that will cause you to
21
conclude that he is a bully.
22
authority of a police officer and the responsible
23
administration of that authority, she was also right about
24
that.
25
ladies and gentlemen, was a bully as a police officer.
You're gonna hear evidence
When she talked about the
What she was wrong about is who abused it.

This man,
32
Defendants' Opening
1
In 2005, he was disciplined for going in to a
homeless encampment in the City of Ithaca known as The
Jungle, he went in, with uniform on, knife in hand, cut
ropes --
MS. BOSMAN:
Objection.
MR. WAGNER:
-- cut tents --
MS. BOSMAN:
Your Honor, I object.
MR. WAGNER:
-- cuts tarps of homeless people.
THE COURT:
10
MS. BOSMAN:
11
THE COURT:
12
MR. WAGNER:
Hang on, there's an objection.

I object, your Honor.
Overruled.
This was a raiding party, ladies and
13
gentlemen.
14
big deal, he was severely punished for this.
15
any Human Rights complaints.
16
typical police officer?
17
You're gonna hear evidence of this.
It was a
This is before
So is this a reasonable,
I say not.
He was suspended for four weeks without pay, plus
18
five days of accrued leave time forfeited.
19
through the course of the trial, that's a severe penalty in
20
the police world, short of termination, of course.
Okay, so
21
that's before any Human Rights complaint is filed.
Does
22
that mean that when somebody files a Human Rights complaint,
23
pshew, they're shrouded in protection, you can no longer
24
discipline that person, no longer scrutinize their behavior?
25
Nay.
This is not the case.
You will find,
You treat them like any other

33
Defendants' Opening
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employee and discipline them, if discipline is appropriate,
and commend them, if commendation is appropriate.
What happened next?
The evidence will show,
ladies and gentlemen, that in 2006 and 2007, over the course
of about nine months, Mr. Miller abused this little woman
named Bunny Oliver, who was a dry cleaner worker at the
Cornell Laundry, no affiliation with Cornell, not employees,
they happened to have a contract with the IPD dry cleaning
uniforms.
Mr. Miller went in in November 2006 to pick up
10
his uniform.
Bunny Oliver just happened to be the lady at
11
the counter who happened to say I'm sorry, I can't find it.
12
You know what he did?
13
Bunny Oliver had taken the day off to do some errands, and
14
he pulled up in his police car, uniform, gun, badge, and he
15
said I see you've taken the day off, I have power over you.
16
We're here to talk about retaliation and he's takin' it to a
17
five foot nothin' woman working for a dry cleaner because
18
she was the one that announced the pants were lost.
19
didn't lose the pants, it was someone in the back.
20
says to her as she's taking a package of beer, closed up,
21
know like a 20 pack, 12 pack, whatever it is, out of her car
22
and he says I can have you arrested for that, open
23
container, and she said it's not open.
24
have 20 witnesses that'll say that it was.
25
is like what's goin' on here?
He went to her house the next day,
She
He then
And he said I'll

And Bunny Oliver
There's not a single witness

34
Defendants' Opening
1
around.
So not only would 20 witnesses be a lie, there
weren't 20 witnesses that would say that.
Okay.
Then what does he do?
He says I know how
your daughter walks home from school, her 15-year-old
daughter.
Bunny is freaking out at this point.
of pants.
from the driveway and plates removed and stay there as long
as I want.
I know how your daughter walks home from school.

It's over a lost pair
Then he finally says I can have your car towed
She freaks out.
She tells her employer.
She
10
doesn't go to the Police Department because she's scared of
11
Mr. Miller.
12
Department and you'll hear from former Chief Vallely that he
13
launches an investigation.
14
technical term when you're doing an investigation, because
15
it's not a citizen making the complaint, he was actually
16
Deputy Chief at the time, makes the complaint and they
17
investigated it.
18
though, she's scared, she doesn't want to do anything.
19
The employer makes a complaint to the Police
It's a complaint, it's a
Bunny doesn't want to get involved,
Fast forward nine months later.
He comes back to
20
her house, he's on her humble little street, on Cleveland
21
Ave, and here's the real kicker, and ladies and gentlemen
22
we're still talking about the pants, it's still about the
23
pants, there's no other contact that anybody knows of in the
24
interim.
25
her porch, neighbor is on his porch and it's the same house,
He comes on up out of his car, she's sittin' on

35
Defendants' Opening
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a duplex with just a little rail in the middle.
spittin' tobacco juice on her flower garden in front.
chewin' tobacco.
able to come to trial, but you'll hear it through prior
testimony.
jealous because you want my saliva in your mouth.
Disgusting.
encounter.
like he's pullin' down his zipper, you really want me to
She says stop.
She's feisty.
He starts
He's
She's not
And she says stop, and he says you're just
Fifteen year old daughter is present for this

Then he pretends to urinate.
He makes a motion
10
water your garden.
11
saying your daughter better watch who she hangs out with or
12
I'm gonna bring her in, okay.
13
Then he threatens the daughter again by
Now she makes another complaint.
Oh, I forgot one
14
other thing.
15
place is a dump, or words to that effect, the landlord
16
should pay you to live here.
17
isn't a criminal.
18
justifiable reason for this man's presence at Bunny Oliver's
19
house in November of 2006 and July of 2007.
20
and inexcusable.
21
and, unfortunately, they sweep it under the rug, there's no
22
discipline.
23
He says to both the neighbor and Bunny, this
This is just abuse.
This isn't an investigation.
This
There's no
It's sickening
Community police board investigates this,
During the investigation, though, Mr. Miller goes
24
and sees the neighbor, who was a witness, at a deli called
25
The Short Stop Deli -- if you're ever at Ithaca at 3 o'clock

36
Defendants' Opening
1
in the morning, you'll want a sandwich from The Short Stop
Deli, only place to get good food -- and he said I want you
to give a story to the investigator for me that I was joking
with Bunny.
somebody, insult their daughter, with that behavior.
we're talking about pants from nine months earlier, okay.
Where I come from, that's not joking, to insult

Again,
There's your reasonable typical police officer
that Ms. Bosman has tried to paint.
This is neither
reasonable nor typical.
So, did he file a Human Rights
10
complaint?
Absolutely.
We stipulate to that, we concur
11
with that.
But he kept doing so, okay.
12
Marlon Byrd, a Lieutenant, and just very roughly how it
13
works on a particular shift, you have a Lieutenant, who is
14
the commanding officer, a coupla sergeants, who were working
15
below the commanding officer, and then you have patrolmen
16
and patrolwomen as the officers.
17
July the 20th, this date here (indicating), received the
18
third of three community complaints.
19
back in '08, summer of '08; he received another one in June
20
of '09; and a third in -- on July 20th.
21
about Officer Miller, and they were like the Bunny Oliver.
22
It wasn't as bad as Bunny Oliver, that was just awful, but
23
it was citizens, some of whom were being investigated for
24
crimes, some of whom were being issued tickets, but citizens
25
all reporting a consistent theme, abuse by this officer.
2008 and 2009,
Lieutenant Byrd, on
He had received one
And they were all

37
Defendants' Opening
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And guess what, ladies and gentlemen?
Guess where
those complaints all came from?
The exact same beat, the
exact same beat where The Jungle is in Ithaca, the exact
same beat where Bunny Oliver lives in Ithaca.
pattern developing here?
pattern and he said to himself, as the commanding officer on
the shift, I got a problem with one of my officers, I'm
gonna use my discretion, not to discipline him, not to yell
at him, not to punish him, but to keep him out of trouble,
Do we see a
Well, Lieutenant Byrd saw such a
10
and I'm gonna do that by takin' him off the beats he
11
preferred, which was the 202 -- let me just get my beat map
12
here so I can show it to ya.
13
Take him off this, the 202 (indicating), where The Jungle
14
is, where Bunny is, where these three citizens complaints,
15
and he puts this in an e-mail dated July 29th, okay, so back
16
on our calendar, he gets the complaint there, he's off for a
17
few days and had vacation, so he sends an e-mail to then
18
Deputy Chief Barber and says I gotta alert you to a problem.
19
So Ms. Bosman talks about people changing their story and
20
this versus that, and we'll talk about the HR investigation
21
in a second, 'cause it was admittedly incomplete, but as far
22
as Lieutenant Byrd knew, he was reporting what he knew to be
23
the case in justifying his decision.
24
25
Sorry, it's a big courtroom.
What's remarkable about -- oh, and where did he

assign him?
Up in the 204.
The 204 is Cornell college

38
Defendants' Opening
1
town.
It's an easier beat in the summertime, students are
gone, less calls, less stress, frankly, than the downtown
beat, which is the poorer neighborhoods.
affluent area.
car in the summer in Ithaca with the students gone
punishment?
gotta get this guy out of the area where the complaints were
coming from.
refer him for discipline; he didn't.
This is a more
So, is driving around in an air-conditioned
Or was Lieutenant Byrd legitimately saying I
He also had the opportunity and the ability to

He said perhaps this
10
officer could benefit from sensitivity training, but I'm
11
gonna let you, as the Chief's office, decide that.
12
making a temporary practical decision to put Officer Miller
13
on the 204.
14
So he's
Now, he also, you'll hear him testify, he also put
15
him on The Commons.
There was discussion about The Commons.
16
He did that as well, that's not as clearly set forth in the
17
e-mail, but he did that because see this black dot
18
(indicating)?
19
want to supervise an officer that's been doin' stuff that
20
you don't think is kosher?
21
want him in a place that's a confined area, a walking beat,
22
about six square blocks, nice, and it's a block and a half
23
from IPD, okay.
24
this, The Commons is a 207, college town is a 204, and of
25
those 13 beats, they're almost all in those areas.
That's the Ithaca Police Department.
You
You want him close to ya, you
So that's what he did.
And you'll see on

39
Defendants' Opening
1
Now, Officer Miller -- I mean Lieutenant Byrd was
concerned about these community complaints, he had discussed
two of 'em with Officer Miller and we're gonna talk about
that.
addressed the issue with Mr. Miller so he knew these
complaints had come in.
for it.
handled incorrectly and in one case Lieutenant Byrd was
concerned that the City could be sued for a violation of
The third, the Sergeant on the shift, Navarro, had
Byrd didn't want to discipline him
He wanted to let him know why he thought they were
10
this particular gentleman's civil rights.
11
rights concern, just like the civil rights concern we're
12
here today for, okay.
13
Lieutenant Byrd knew about The Jungle, he knew about Bunny
14
Oliver, and those three complaints were the tail end of a
15
very established pattern.
16
He refers it up.
It was a civil
And by the way,
You're gonna hear Lieutenant Byrd talk about his
17
knowledge of Mr. Miller's community rights complaints and
18
he's gonna tell ya he had no idea of any of the details of
19
those.
20
years, he filed three over 2006, 2008, 2009, but you're
21
gonna hear Lieutenant Byrd talk to you about what they meant
22
to him and what they didn't mean to him.
23
details.
24
gentlemen:
25
that and retaliate, sensitivity training?
He may have heard because he had been doin' it for
He didn't have any
And ask yourselves the question, ladies and

If Lieutenant Byrd is gonna take him to it for
That's

40
Defendants' Opening
1
retaliation?
I mean we could probably -- I am sure we could
all benefit from sensitivity training, probably a pretty
pleasant thing.
That wasn't even done, by the way.
wasn't it done?
Deputy Chief Barber, again Deputy Chief,
receives this e-mail on July 29th, and he immediately agrees
with the action taken.
officer, meaning Lieutenant Byrd, the commanding officer, is
doing the right thing.
complaints didn't have to be proven against Officer Miller,
Why
He looks at it, he says my staff
It didn't -- those three community
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they were both legitimately concerned about the pattern,
11
about what he was doing and putting our citizens at risk in
12
the poorer neighborhoods.
13
him up to college town, what was he doing?
14
it in the e-mail.
15
disenfranchise -- he is less likely to encounter the
16
disenfranchised, meaning people with money and social status
17
that can fight back, meaning Bunny Oliver.
18
the Bunny Oliver thing if he knocks on a professor's door at
19
Cornell who teaches at the law school.
20
unfortunate thing that Bunny can be preyed upon like that,
21
but it was a fact of life and Lieutenant Byrd was aware of
22
that, okay.
And think about that.
By sending
And you'll see
Lieutenant Byrd said we are
He can't pull
That's an
23
So, these beat assignments get assigned.
24
Critically, Lieutenant -- Officer Miller doesn't complain to
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Lieutenant Byrd, he doesn't come to Byrd and say, hey, wait

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Defendants' Opening
1
a second, this is not kosher, you're retaliating against me.
Doesn't complain to his staff Sergeants.
August 7th, down here (indicating) to complain to HR,
totally his right to do that, I am not faulting him for
that.
then does an investigation, you'll hear from Valerie Saul,
the Assistant Director of Human Resources who really doesn't
handle the Police Department, but the director was out, so
she handles it.
He waits until
That's what Human Resources is for.
Human Resources
Her investigation is admittedly incomplete.
10
She talked only to Ed Vallely, who was the Chief at the
11
time, just got back from vacation and they were having so
12
many issues with Officer Miller, he threw his hands up and
13
said beats, my goodness, I want people to rotate beats, want
14
people to work a lot of beats.
15
never talked to Byrd.
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incomplete, we admit that.
17
hear from the witnesses, look at the documents to determine
18
what was in Lieutenant Byrd's mind, 'cause he was the one
19
that made the decision.
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you'll see him get up there and own that decision, ladies
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and gentlemen, he will own it.
22
She never talked to Barber,
So that investigation absolutely was

But in hindsight, you get to
And what's beautiful about it is
Now, there was some talk about charges against
23
Officer Miller, other retaliation, mistreatment, bringing of
24
additional discipline, and you're gonna hear about that,
25
that's gonna come down to credibility.
I want ya to listen

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Defendants' Opening
1
carefully.
against the reports and the documents and the testimony of
the other witnesses.
It's gonna come down to Mr. Miller's story
And I strongly feel that after you've heard that
testimony, you're gonna conclude that this man, in addition
to being a bully, is a liar, and he's not only a garden
variety liar, he's a liar (inaudible).
these beat assignments occurred, a month before Lieutenant
Byrd got that third community complaint, officer Miller had
Just a month before
10
just been disciplined for falsifying a DWI patrol report,
11
falsifying it.
12
his overtime, all right.
13
they brought him up on disciplinary charges and he accepted
14
the discipline, 80 hours of sick time lost, also a
15
significant discipline, that's after The Jungle and Bunny
16
Oliver.
17
was consulted on whether it was a crime prior to the
18
discipline, scratched her head and said wait a second, if
19
I'm gonna use this officer on the witness stand in any
20
criminal case, I'm gonna have to disclose it to the defense
21
because now this is a question of real credibility of a
22
police officer witness on the stand.
23
letter.
24
whoa, 'cause he calls her.
DA, Gwen Wilkinson, she says I
25
am gonna send this letter.
She says wait a minute, if you
He lied on it in order to hand it in and get

Lied on it.
He got caught on it,
And Miss Bosman is correct, that the DA, when she
So she sends the
Then Chief Vallely says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

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Defendants' Opening
1
send that letter, I can't use Officer Miller anymore, I'm
down ten guys right now, ten officers, ten heads.
it anyway.
beat assignments had ended, 13 shifts that were easier than
the ones he preferred, and we're just takin' him out of
trouble, he was no longer a real police officer, he could
only be used at the desk cause they couldn't put him on
patrol anymore.
that and then you'll hear to what ultimately happened and
10
11
DA sends
The point being is that by the time these 13
You'll hear about more discipline after
why we're here today.

So, ladies and gentlemen, as you're thinking about
12
the evidence, as you're receiving the evidence, think about
13
the credibility of the witnesses, think about what police
14
departments are all about, think about whether a person who
15
engages in this kind of discipline can throw up the charge
16
of discrimination to the Human Rights or to the court or to
17
the EEOC or anywhere else as a means to block them from real
18
accountability.
19
was trying to do with regard to Mr. Miller was to hold him
20
accountable for the natural consequences of his actions.
21
And that's now been done.
22
your role will be to first determine whether 13 beat
23
assignments in the summer of Ithaca were better than he was
24
on can even constitute retaliation, number one, and number
25
two, what Lieutenant Byrd did it for.
The only thing the Ithaca Police Department
And after you hear the evidence,
Did he do it for the

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Defendants' Opening
1
right reasons?
ha, ha, Human Rights complaints, I know what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna assign him an easier shift and refer him to
sensitivity training.
Or was he solely focused, in his mid, ha,
That's what you're gonna be asked to decide.
And
we are confident that after you hear the evidence that you
will conclude, as the City did, and the City has today, that
Mr. Miller is in the bed that he made and his circumstances
are of his own making.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
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Opening statement, please.

Thank you, your Honor.

the Court, ladies and gentlemen of the jury:

that will challenge you, both factually and about your

beliefs, your beliefs about race, your beliefs about the

right to complain about discrimination, your beliefs about

employment, law enforcement, all of those things that are

really current right now with what's been happening in the

news, with respect to police officers, how race is involved,

how it is perceived by the people that deal with law

any power but what we give them, because ours is a

Government by the people for the people.

weapons, we give them training, we give them all the tools

that they need in order to keep order in our society.

These men and women who put on a badge and a

A long time ago, Congress decided that the best

way for us to exist as a society is to ensure that there is

equal treatment, regardless of race, regardless of sex,

regardless of disability, regardless, everybody should be

treated the same.

that, we incorporated that in our Constitution, we

incorporate that in our laws.

Founding Fathers said

What happened in the City of Ithaca Police

what you hear.

a police officer with the Ithaca Police Department for a

number of years and he saw something that troubled him, and

so he took his right under the law to complain, to file a

complaint, to make a complaint.

instruct you on when the time comes.

In this instance, Mr. Miller, my client, was

And he's entitled to do

Now, that's a pretty straightforward thing, you'd

A Police Department is supposed to enforce the laws,

and they're supposed to treat their own members the same.

But what Mr. Miller saw was what he described as

whether or not that occurred.

right to speak that complaint, the right to make that

complaint, the right to file that complaint, the right to

share that complaint with your supervisors, with the

administration, with the City of Ithaca itself, and the

fundamental concept here is that if Chris Miller is

retaliated against for doin' that, then so is everybody

them the authority of the law.

Now, you're not going to be deciding

One of the ways that our democracy ensures that

that is preserved is by protecting the right of people to

seek redress of grievances, to seek remedy, to voice

discrimination and gender.

within the Ithaca Police Department were treated differently

given more leniency, given more promotions, given better

working opportunities than white males were.

unusual, sometimes people call it reverse discrimination,

but from our perspective, discrimination is discrimination.

In 2005, Mr. Miller filed a complaint of race

His position was that minority officers were

Doesn't matter if you're doing it against a white man,

doesn't matter if you're doing it against a black man.

you're doin' it because of color, if you're doin' it because

of race, gender, it's discrimination.

After he filed his complaint, he started being