Menands

Two Albany police officers testified Thursday they were unaware they were being videotaped in a police booking room when they coached another officer to refuse an alcohol chemical test during his 2010 arrest.

The testimony unfolded at a pre-trial hearing for Brian Lutz, an Albany police officer whose attorney, David Brickman, is seeking to have the videotape thrown out, in part, because he said the three officers didn't know their conversation was being recorded.

"You know how things work, right?" said Cheryl K. Fowler, an assistant district attorney, as she questioned Officer Christian Mesley, who was president of the Albany police union when he went to the Menands station to assist Lutz.

"Yes," Mesley answered.

"Isn't it fair to say that you're aware those rooms are capable of recording?" Fowler asked. "Yes," Mesley said, before adding he didn't know his conversation with Lutz was being taped.

When Fowler asked Mesley, as union president, how many times he'd assisted police officers arrested on a DWI charge, he answered: "I'd say maybe two dozen times."

A second Albany officer, Charles Batchelor, testifed he also went to the station to assist Lutz, but as "a friend" and not a union official. Batchelor testified he wasn't aware their conversation was being recorded.

Fowler has filed court papers saying Menands police officers said they warned the three they were in an area that was being recorded. Batchelor and Mesley both testified they didn't recall the Menands officer who arrested Lutz reading him a warning about his refusal to submit to an alcohol test.

In the videotape, Mesley can be heard telling Lutz to calm down after the officer reads him the refusal warning.

Brickman is arguing the videotape may have violated state eavesdropping laws. He contends Lutz's unsteady condition was due to prescription medicine and failing kidneys, not alcohol.

Village Justice Lisa Anne Proskin has not ruled on the defense motions.

A Menands patrol officer found Lutz unconscious behind the wheel of his running vehicle on Interstate 787 just before 6 a.m. on Dec. 11, 2010. The officer said Lutz appeared intoxicated, there was vomit on the ground next to his driver's door and he failed an alcohol screening test, police said.

Lutz's driving privileges were revoked and he was fired for not having a driver's license. A state appellate court reinstated him to his job last year but Lutz remains suspended.

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