By Joseph A. Slobodzian
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — “We’re going to teach you a lesson.”
Handcuffed in the rear of the Philadelphia police cruiser, Dominic Catalano said Monday, he was shocked by the officer’s words.
“I didn’t know why they were arresting me,” Catalano told a city judge.
Twenty-four hours after his March 4, 2010, arrest, Catalano was freed when the District Attorney’s Office refused to prosecute him on charges of assaulting an officer.
Instead, Officer Aleksander Shwarz was ultimately charged with roughing up and falsely arresting Catalano after a dispute between the two apparently got the better of the 21-year officer.
Shwarz, 54, was ordered held for trial on false arrest charges after Municipal Judge James M. DeLeon viewed a security video of the incident and concluded that the officer seemed to be the aggressor.
“To me, it looked like he was trying to get away from your client,” DeLeon told defense attorney Gerald S. Stanshine.
Still, Stanshine convinced the judge that what the 15- to 20-second video showed - Shwarz grabbing Catalano by his collar, spinning him around, and pushing his face against the wall before cuffing him - also was not an assault.
“There is just no attempt to injure,” Stanshine argued.
Assistant District Attorney Erica Wilson maintained that the assault charge was valid because Shwarz had no reason to arrest Catalano.
DeLeon dismissed counts of simple assault and unlawful restraint at the preliminary hearing. But Shwarz - who has been fired from the police force - still must face trial on official oppression, false imprisonment, filing false reports, obstruction of justice, and unsworn falsification charges.
DeLeon said the video, from two of 16 security cameras at a Northeast U-Haul agency, convinced him the arrest was baseless.
Catalano, then manager of the store in the 7700 block of Roosevelt Boulevard, testified that the incident occurred when Shwarz and partner John Loisch responded to his call about a stolen truck.
Catalano said the truck had been found at Philadelphia International Airport, and he wanted the officers to remove it from the stolen vehicle list so he could put in back into his rental fleet. Catalano said he had done this before with other officers without problem, but Loisch said the truck was in Delaware County and he would have to call police there.
Frustrated because he believed Shwarz and Loisch did not want to be bothered, Catalano said he asked both for their names and badge numbers. The officers refused, he said, and told him to call 911 and ask for a supervisor.
Instead, Catalano said, he followed Loisch outside, walked to the rear of the patrol car, and wrote down the license plate number.
On the video, Catalano walks from the rear of the car and passes Shwarz as the officer approaches the driver’s door. Shwarz reaches out his right arm to grab Catalano’s shoulder, and Catalano dips his shoulder and keeps walking toward his store.
Shwarz follows Catalano and accosts him at the door, pushing him against the wall as Loisch comes from the car to help Shwarz cuff Catalano.
Shwarz told detectives Catalano swore at him and “shouldered me” as he passed.
But prosecutors were convinced by the video, and corroborating accounts of another store worker and two customers who watched the arrest from inside the store.
Wilson said Loisch remains on active duty and was not charged.
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