Attorney: Ample video exists of arrest near PPG arena

DiLucente can’t reveal source of new footage

The attorney for a man who was violently arrested by Pittsburgh police outside PPG Paints Arena in September said Wednesday that there is “plenty” of video footage of the controversial incident.

“There is a lot, and I mean a lot, of footage,” said Phil DiLucente, who is representing Daniel T. Adelman, 47, of Ravenna, Ohio.

So far, the public has only seen a single 54-second video clip that was recorded on a cell phone by a bystander and appeared to show an officer striking Mr. Adelman at least eight times while the man was on the ground before slamming his head against the pavement.

Mr. DiLucente said Wednesday that he is currently prohibited from discussing what the video footage of the incident depicts or where it came from.

Gary Desjardins, general manager of PPG Paints Arena, previously said the organization was cooperating with police, but declined to comment further.

Mr. Adelman was visiting Pittsburgh for a concert Sept. 19 when he encountered two plainclothes officers and a uniformed officer near the intersection of Lemieux Place and Centre Avenue, Uptown.

The officers were in the process of arresting 34-year-old David Jones on an outstanding warrant when Mr. Adelman interfered in the arrest, the officers said.

Mr. Adelman was taken to the ground and Officer Andrew Jacobs struck him several times. The officers’ use of force is under review by the FBI, the Allegheny County

District Attorney’s Office, the police department itself, the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations and Office of Professional Standards, as well as by the Citizen Police Review Board.

Those reviews are ongoing. Officer Jacobs has been placed on desk duty.

Mr. DiLucente spoke about the additional video footage Wednesday after sitting through the preliminary hearing for Mr. Jones, who was charged with resisting arrest and flight to avoid arrest after his encounter with officers that day.

District Judge Anthony M. Ceoffe dismissed the flight charge and held the resisting arrest charge for court after listening to Officer Brian Markus testify about the arrest.

Officer Markus testified that he and Officer Todd Modena were both holding Mr. Jones’ arms when the man tried to flee, but said that Mr. Jones never broke from their grasp.

District Judge Ceoffe decided that did not constitute a flight to avoid apprehension.

Mr. DiLucente said Wednesday’s preliminary hearing clarified the day’s events.

He maintains that Mr. Adelman saw two men in street clothes on top of Mr. Jones and intervened, believing that Mr. Jones was being attacked.

“Now it makes sense to me,” Mr. DiLucente said. “The intent to resist arrest and obstruct law enforcement is not there.”

Mr. DiLucente said Mr. Adelman did not realize that the two men in street clothes were police officers until they were in the middle of arresting him. He suggested that Mr. Adelman may not have been able to see the single uniformed officer when he approached the group.

Mr. Adelman previously told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV that he was smoking a cigarette when he saw an “officer in a suit” and “thought the officer in the suit was in trouble.”

Mr. Adelman is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing in City Court, Downtown, on Nov. 21. He is charged with obstruction of law enforcement, resisting arrest and public drunkenness.