By Margaret Harding
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
BLOOMFIELD, Pa. — Pittsburgh police confiscated a computer from a Bloomfield business Wednesday evening in connection with a hoax e-mail that made it appear the city police union was withdrawing its support for three officers under investigation for a Homewood teen’s beating last year. Police took the computer from Dreaming Ant, which shares a building with Crazy Mocha on Liberty Avenue. Police declined to say what led them to the business or what, if anything, officers recovered from the computer.
A message on Dreaming Ant’s website said it was temporarily closed due to “unusual circumstances,” and planned to reopen in the next couple of days. A fake news release sent to news organizations last week said the Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1 membership voted to no longer call for clearance of Officers Richard Ewing, David Sisak and Michael Saldutte for any wrongdoing. The union has done no such thing.
“This is just totally outrageous that this occurred,” said FOP President Dan O’Hara. “If we catch anyone with regard to this, it’s going to be multiple felonies, and that will set the example in the future.”
Zone 6 detectives are handling the investigation because the FOP office is located on Banksville Road in that zone. The three officers are accused of beating Jordan Miles, 18, after finding him on Tioga Street. The plainclothes officers have said they believed that Miles, then a student at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts High School, was armed with a gun. A struggle ensued and Miles was injured. He was not carrying a weapon.
The city’s Office of Municipal Investigations is reviewing the incident. The officers and Miles took polygraph tests, and the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating.