Asian man claims he was racially profiled

Shop owner charged in counterfeit case

A Taiwanese-American business owner believes Frazer police violated his constitutional rights by starting an investigation of his business based solely on his race.

Attorney Casey White filed a motion Thursday asking Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Randal B. Todd to throw out the case against Tommy Wang, 42, of Highland Park, who faces a charge of selling goods with counterfeit trademarks.

The investigation began in February 2018 after Mr. Wang reported to police an attempted burglary of his store, Shop Off The Hanger, which is in the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, according to a criminal complaint.

Frazer police Officer Lee Bartolicius went with Mr. Wang to his store, where the officer went into a back room and noticed fish tanks and unmarked boxes.

Officer Bartolicius apparently became suspicious, because he consulted with a captain in the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission who told him that “it is common for persons engaged in illegal activity specifically of Asian descent to buy, sell, trade and breed in exotic, protected and endangered fish,” according to a March 14 application for a search warrant written by Officer Bartolicius.

It was not clear exactly when that consultation took place.

Mr. Wang, a U.S. citizen, is from Taiwan and immigrated to the United States as a child in the 1980s, Mr. White said.

Officer Bartolicius also wrote in the search warrant application that he knew unmarked boxes to be the “normal way” for counterfeit goods to be shipped to the United States — particularly from China — and said he recognized counterfeit goods in the front of the store as he walked through.

Officer Bartolicius then started an investigation. Over the next month, he worked with a private investigator and undercover state police to buy products from the store and examine them to determine if they used unlicensed trademarks.

Officers were granted a search warrant for the store and said that on March 15 they found more than 1,700 items — including coasters, glasses, flags, clocks, bar stools and mugs — that contained unlicensed logos and trademarks. Police seized that merchandise.

“He categorically denies the allegations. Mr. Wang has never participated in the buying and selling of counterfeit merchandise,” Mr. White said.

“Mr. Wang went from the victim of a burglary to a criminal defendant based solely on his race,” Mr. White said. “The language used in the affidavit of probable cause is the epitome or paradigm of racial profiling that still plagues our society.”

Mr. White said that, to his knowledge, police did not solve or further investigate the attempted burglary reported by his client.

In court filings, Mr. White said Officer Bartolicius’ approach to the situation followed “racist logic” and relied on “racist stereotypes.” Mr. White pointed out that Officer Bartolicius noted in his application for the search warrant that the cashier in the store was Asian.

“Officer Bartolicius entered Mr. Wang’s store and initiated an investigation based on his impression that Mr. Wang was likely engaging in unlawful activity because he is Asian, has fish and has unmarked boxes in his store,” Mr. White wrote in a court filing.

A spokesman for Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. declined to comment on the case, which is scheduled for a nonjury trial April 10 before Judge Todd.

Frazer police did not return a request for comment.