NEWPORT, Ky. — A Northern Kentucky man has filed a lawsuit against the Newport Police Department and Officer Ronald Lulamandier individually in connection with his June 8 arrest in the Academy on 4th apartment complex.
In the lawsuit filed by attorney Robert Thompson, Brandon Rettig accuses the police department and Lulamander of violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights.
Body camera footage shared with WCPO showed officers responding to what appeared to be an assault in the NUL parking lot after midnight.
Rettig said he had called out to the officers from the balcony of his then-girlfriend's apartment.
"I initially said, 'Go get 'em boys' because I actually support the police. Like, I'm a big pro-cop guy," he said. "I guess I said something after that and they were like, 'One more thing and you're going to be next.' I was like, 'You can't do that.' I was like, 'Come get me then.'"
Another body camera video from Newport Police shared with WCPO showed three officers did enter the building to confront Rettig.
The suit claims officer Lulamandier used a key card he'd kept from when he previously lived in the complex to enter the private property in search of Rettig.
Rettig said he'd gone to his apartment down the hall before officers arrived at his girlfriend's apartment and began knocking on the door.
When he approached the trio, Rettig initially claimed he wasn't the person shouting at them.
The body-worn camera captured the following conversation:
Lulamandier: " Here's the thing, we know it was you, alright?
Rettig: "No, you don't."
Lulamandier: "You want to make a bet? I can find out real quick."
Rettig: "There's no cameras here."
Lulamandier: "I used to live here."
Lulamander asked how much Rettig had had to drink that night, and when he responded that he lived there, Lulamander told him he was under arrest and began placing him in handcuffs.
"He didn't really know what to do, and all of the sudden he's like, 'Put your hands behind your back,'" Rettig said.
He expressed disbelief both in the recording and when speaking with WCPO in the wake of his lawsuit.
"It's, like, really? Like, is it really that serious where you've really got to use your authority and power and take me to jail for this? It was shocking," he said.
Rettig acknowledged he'd been drinking before the encounter with police, but Thompson said that didn't in any way justify the public intoxication charge he faced when arrested.
The charge was later dropped.
"The goal is to tell Newport it's not illegal to drink a beer in your own house. To say otherwise is simply un-American," Thompson said.
Thompson said the City of Newport would soon be served with the lawsuit beginning what could be years of litigation.
WCPO made several phone calls to numbers associated with Lulamandier with no response. A secretary told a WCPO reporter that no one was available at the department to address the lawsuit, and an email to Chief Christopher Fangman requesting comment on Rettig's accusation and asking about Lulamandier's status at the department went unanswered Friday night.
The full lawsuit can be read here:
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