Tempers flared when patrolman David Coppola (pictured) stopped a driver who turned out to be president of the Board of Police Commissioners.
Just whose temper? Depends on the version.
The incident, which became the talk of 1 Union Ave. later in the week, occurred around 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Richard Epstein, president of Board of Police Commissioners, was driving home with his wife after a dinner at Zinc. He was heading west on Chapel Street by High Street when, he said, a cop car cut him off.
Epstein rolled down his window to say something to the cop, who turned out to be Coppola. According to Coppola, Epstein yelled at him: “You cut me off!” Epstein said he didn’t yell at Coppola.
In any case Epstein drove on — and, he concedes, passed through a red light, without noticing it.
Coppola pulled him over. He said he apologized to Epstein “if” he had cut him off. He then informed Epstein he had run through the light. He also noticed Epstein didn’t have his seat belt on.
“He seemed agitated,” Coppola wrote in a subsequent incident report. “I told him he needed to calm down.” Coppola asked if Epstein was “OK” to drive home. Epstein said yes.
Coppola told Epstein he wouldn’t issue Epstein a ticket. According to both Coppola and Epstein, neither knew who the other one was up to that point.
Then Epstein looked at Coppola’s badge — a move Coppola took as a threat.
“The driver told me he needed it for when he talks to the chief in the morning as he is Commissioner Epstein,” Coppola wrote. “I told him if he wanted to use his position as a commissioner against me go right ahead, as I have been a cop for twenty years and I am not afraid so go ahead and call the chief.”
Epstein (pictured) tells a different story. He said he never lost his temper. He said he never intended to speak to the police chief, or anyone else in the department, about the incident. He said he was fully prepared to get a ticket; he knew he had run a red light, if inadvertently.
“I don’t want to discuss [Coppola’s] behavior,” Epstein said on Friday. “I was concerned that he cut me off. I tried to bring it to his attention.”
“If he had given me a ticket, I wouldn’t have told him who I was,” Epstein added. He said he mentioned his identity only after Coppola made “a big deal” about his having looked at the badge.
Epstein said his seat belt was off because he was retrieving his wallet in order to present his driver’s license.
“Commissioner Epstein’s actions were entirely proper,” said city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts, who oversees the police department. He noted that Epstein didn’t mention his official position “until the matter was settled” and no ticket had been issued.
(Click here to read a previous Independent story about Officer Coppola. He is known these days for having earned the most overtime pay in the department last year; he took home $174,044.90 in all. Much of his overtime, according to Smuts, was for extra-duty work which is paid for by clubs or other businesses hiring off-duty cops, as opposed to straight overtime paid out of city coffers.)
Following is the full text of Coppola’s case incident report narrative from Wednesday night. The city provided a copy to the Independent Friday.
(”[]” has been inserted for portions of the photocopied handwritten report that couldn’t be discerned.)
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As I pulled to the right side curb at Chapel St by High St CT reg [] pulled alongside of me and the driver yelled at me ‘You cut me off.’
The car then sped off through the red light. I turned off my overhead lights and pulled behind the vehicle and he pulled over at Chapel and York St.
I approached the driver and I told him ‘I apologize if I cut you off but you went through the red light.’ He replied ‘I did not see it was red until I was thru it.’
I told him well are you OK to drive. He said yes. I told him he seemed agitated and he needed to calm down.
As he was gathering his paperwork I told him I would not be issuing an infraction unless he []. He told me no he didn’t. I then told him to put on his seat belt.
He looked at my name tag and badge number and I told him D.W. Coppola badge 488. The driven then told me he needed it for when he talks to the chief in the morning as he is Commissioner Epstein.
I told him if he wanted to use his position as a commissioner against me go right ahead as I have been a cop for twenty years and I am not afraid so go ahead and call the chief.
I turned and walked back to my patrol car. I called for a CAD call. I pulled a case number and wrote the report.
At all times during this incident I was in full police uniform with my hat, badge, name tag and full use of my police vehicle.
At no time during incident did I yell or scream. Mr. Epstein’s only complaint was that I ‘cut him off’ and he had to stop short. If I saw his car when I pulled to the right this would not have happened.