TRENTON — A Trentonian story about cops being caught dead to rights on body camera making up a story about how they found a gun has resulted in another lawsuit against the litigation-heavy Trenton Police.
The lawsuit accuses officers of “fabricating, planting and tampering with evidence” in a criminal case.
Tyrawn Carter, who was charged with aggravated assault stemming from the suspicious gun find, alleged in the lawsuit Trenton police officers who arrested and charged him with aggravated assault and weapons offenses concocted a “false report” about how they found a rusted-out handgun that state police later determined didn’t work.
“Defendants …carried out and perpetuated the conspiracy to deprive plaintiff of his rights by participating in a corrupt effort to illegally seize, book and fraudulently convict plaintiff on false charges manufactured and supported by defendants,” according to the lawsuit, brought by attorneys Robin Lord and Cliff Bidlingmaier III.
The civil complaint includes counts of malicious prosecution, false arrest and imprisonment, and civil rights violations.
Although he refused to go along with other officers blue-silence demands that violate a department order by powering down his body camera, Trenton Police officer Chris Hutton is a named defendant, along with K-9 cop Drew Astbury and former police director Ernest Parrey Jr.
Carter’s lawsuit was filed last month after The Trentonian earlier this year exposed the whole allegedly staged episode from September 2016.
The newspaper had to sue the city to obtain Hutton’s body camera footage after the city and police department initially refused to turn over the damaging footage because the officers in the video were under internal affairs investigation.