BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Former Bloomfield police officer Orlando Trinidad was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday, Jan. 21. Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin told Trinidad, who had been found guilty of second-degree official misconduct, that he was ineligible for parole.
At the sentencing, Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Berta Rodriguez asked Ravin for a seven-year prison term without parole for five years. Defense attorney Frank Arleo asked that the charge be reduced to a third-degree crime. A conviction on a second-degree charge requires a mandatory prison term.
After a 15-day trial in October, a jury returned guilty verdicts on numerous charges against Trinidad, but the official misconduct charge was the most serious. All charges stemmed from a June 7, 2012, vehicle stop on the Garden State Parkway.
Two police patrol car dashboard cameras recorded the stop. The driver of the vehicle, Bloomfield resident Marcus Jeter, is shown being pulled from the car and thrown to the ground by Trinidad and former Bloomfield officer Sean Courter. Trinidad had arrived after the stop. A third Bloomfield officer, Albert Sutterlin, was also at the scene.
Trinidad is seen striking a defenseless Jeter, who was being followed by police responding to a domestic dispute between Jeter and his girlfriend. Jeter was in court on Friday. Courter is awaiting sentencing. Sutterlin has since retired.
Last week, Trinidad arrived in court handcuffed, and he had grown a small goatee. He told Ravin that on the night of the incident, his intentions were good — that he and his partners arrive home safely.
“I am sorry for what happened to Mr. Jeter that night,” Trinidad said. “I am a different man today, a humbled man.”
He said he wanted to have a family, be a father and live the American dream.
“I hope you can be lenient with me,” he said to Ravin.
Jeter spoke immediately afterward.
“I wake up in cold sweats and have nightmares,” he told Ravin, as a result of the incident. “I still fear for my life. Do I ask for the maximum sentence? I don’t know.”
Arleo told Ravin that mitigating factors favored a lesser charge than a second-degree crime.
The physical harm done to Jeter by Trinidad, he said, was minor.
“But the jury convicted my client of the greater harm,” he said.
Arleo said Jeter was not an innocent victim, because it defied logic that Courter would give Jeter permission to leave the scene of the domestic quarrel and then radio police headquarters to say that Jeter was “running away.” Courter and Sutterlin had arrived at the Bloomfield home of Jeter’s girlfriend, alerted by a 9-1-1 call of a domestic incident.
According to Arleo, it was strong provocation for Trinidad to act the way he did, since Jeter had been quarreling with his girlfriend, had broken her cellphone and had been drinking. And he said the official misconduct statute was extremely broad.
“It make no difference if you’re an officer and beat someone down, or a clerk and take something,” he said.
Ravin said he had received 28 letters from Trinidad’s family members, friends and employees, who vouched for his good character.
“I read every single one of them,” he said. “I grouped them by the adjectives to describe him.”
The prosecutor asked for a seven-year sentence.
“His actions show a strong case of recidivism,” Rodriguez said. “His testimony during the trial shows he is not taking responsibility for his actions. The only mitigating factor is that he must relinquish his position as a police officer.”
The dashboard recordings of the incident showed Jeter either with his hands up, or face-down on the ground with his hands under him, as Courter yelled at him to take his hands off the officer’s gun. Trinidad is seen striking Jeter behind the head while he was on the ground and when he was handcuffed.
Jeter was subsequently charged with eluding, attempting to take Courter’s gun and for striking Trinidad. He faced a possible five-year prison sentencing until the existence of one of the two dashboard recordings became known and was viewed by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, exonerating him. Both officers were subsequently charged with false swearing and tampering with records.
Ravin decided the charge of official misconduct would remain a second-degree offense. When Trinidad heard this, he turned his head away.
But Ravin said he would not impose consecutive sentences for Trinidad’s various offenses because they did not happen at different times and did not have different victims.
Running concurrently with the five-year sentence, Trinidad received three years for tampering with public records; nine months for falsifying records; nine months for false swearing; and six months for simple assault.
Ravin said Jeter had requested $10,220.98 in restitution from Trinidad. This amount included $5,000 in legal fees. A hearing was necessary to determine if Trinidad could pay restitution, Ravin said.
“He’s lost his job and is about to be imprisoned,” the judge said. “This court does not think he can pay.”
Arleo asked that Trinidad be freed on bail until his appeal could be heard. Ravin refused this. Trinidad has served 78 days of his sentence. He was incarcerated following the jury’s verdict.
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