State police cars

A State Police trooper allegedly held a retired Army Reserve colonel and his daughter at gunpoint in 2010 after mistaking their Volkswagon Beetle for a Jetta authorities were trying to find. (File photo)

(File Photo)

TRENTON — The state Turnpike Authority will pay $112,500 to settle claims a State Police trooper held a retired Army Reserve colonel and his daughter at gunpoint in 2010 at a rest area on the Garden State Parkway after mistaking their car for another troopers were trying to find.

In a lawsuit filed in 2012, Col. R. Timothy Leever claimed Trooper Rodrigo Coelho mistook his Volkswagon Beetle for a Jetta at the Colonia rest area in Middlesex County, pointed a gun at his daughter and then pointed it at his head and threatened to shoot him.

The trooper, in court papers, denied the charges.

The lawsuit claimed Coelho didn't try to identify Leever before frisking him against the car, handcuffing him and placing him in the back of a patrol car. Coelho allegedly refused to tell Leever's wife why he was detained and held him for 30 minutes before letting him go.

None of the Leevers were charged. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, claimed Coelho, an eight-year trooper, violated the family's constitutional rights and used excessive force. The case was first disclosed in January 2013 by The Star-Ledger.

On Nov. 26, 2010, Leever, his wife and two daughters, Destiny and Elizabeth, were traveling from New York to North Carolina to move one daughter back home, the lawsuit said. At the time, Leever was serving as an Army Reserve chaplain in North Carolina.

The lawsuit said Leever and his daughter, Elizabeth, who was 14, were driving in a black Volkswagon Beetle and his wife and other daughter were in another car. About 8 p.m., the family stopped at the rest area on the southbound side of the Parkway.

The suit claimed Coelho "failed to properly identify Colonel Leever's VW Beetle, misidentifying it as a black VW Jetta, for which he was apparently searching."

Coelho saw the family and "without making any attempt to speak to or identify the Leevers ... immediately unholstered his service revolver and pointed it at Elizabeth," according to the suit. He then allegedly pointed his gun at Leever's head and threatened to shoot.

Leever complied with the trooper's request to get out of the car and was then pushed against the side of the car, frisked, physically assaulted, "roughed" up and arrested, according to the lawsuit.

Coelho yelled at Leever's wife to stop taking photographs of the encounter, the lawsuit said, when another trooper, who was not identified in court documents, told his colleague to "calm down." The troopers allegedly refused to tell Leever or his wife why he was being detained.

The Turnpike Authority, which is responsible for trooper actions on the Parkway, approved the settlement Tuesday.

Christopher Baxter may be reached at cbaxter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cbaxter1. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.