Hello, Collar City! This is Issue 34, dated May 10, 2019.



Hi, all. In this issue: Newly released video footage of the Lamont Lee arrest from last year, the county jail's latest state inspections, the CDTA CEO's appearance at the BID's annual event, and more.



Troy Letter currently has 731 subscribers, . In this issue: Newly released video footage of the Lamont Lee arrest from last year, the county jail's latest state inspections, the CDTA CEO's appearance at the BID's annual event, and more.Troy Letter currently has 731 subscribers, about 20 percent of whom make monthly contributions via Patreon to help keep this project going. Thank you!

Lamont Lee Arrest Video Footage

Earlier this week, I published on Twitter video footage of the March 3, 2018 arrest by Troy police of Lamont Lee, which can viewed on YouTube by clicking here . I obtained the footage through a Freedom of Information Law request.“The video speaks for itself,” Ed Sivin, Lee’s attorney, told me on Wednesday over the phone. “There’s no reasonable person that can look at that video and conclude anything other than that excessive, unjustified force was used.”Lee and his grandson have sued the city of Troy and several of its police officers in federal court . The claims relate to the March 3, 2018 arrest of Lee and another encounter with Troy police the following month, which the lawsuit says was “undertaken in retaliation for Lee having complained to governmental authorities about" the March arrest.A spokesman for Mayor Patrick Madden declined to comment on the video, citing policy on pending litigation.Days after the March arrest, while represented by the public defender in the matter, Lee pleaded guilty to drug possession, resisting arrest, and loitering charges in exchange for three years of probation and forfeiture of several hundred dollars. He later retained a private attorney, Michael Feit, and tried to withdraw the guilty plea, saying in court papers that he was ”still suffering great pain and confusion as a result of his injuries and felt that pleading guilty…was the only way he could be released and get proper medical treatment."A city court judge subsequently denied that attempt to withdraw the plea, and late last year, a county court judge dismissed an appeal of that decision.The above-linked video footage was shown to some media outlets last year by Feit but was not released to the broader public.