Singletary Settles His $1.5 Million Lawsuit Against Rochester...For $75,000?

Yep, that's right!

Disgraced Rochester ex-police chief LaRon Singletary settled his lawsuit against the City for $75,000!

He sued Rochester because the administration of ex-Mayor Lovely Warren "blackened" (pardon the pun) his reputation and sought $1.5 million in compensation.

If Singletary thought his damaged reputation was worth that much, why did he settle for only 5% of the dollar settlement he asked for?

The lawyers will get most of that.

Some people, including me, think that his reputation wasn't that hot to begin with. 

It was created two years before Mayor Warren appointed him Chief of Police, to make his promotion seem logical.

It was a successful public relations stunt to arouse public interest for a product that nobody wanted, needed or could use, but had a catchy name and attractive package.

It was all just hype.

As part of the settlement, Singletary had his medical benefits restored, which were eliminated when Mayor Warren fired him in a fit of vindictive pique after he retired in the wake of the Daniel Prude scandal being made public in September 2020.

She had singled out Singletary to take the fall for the conspiracy of silence regarding the circumstances behind Daniel Prude's death in March 2020, more than five months before.

He, she and a host of other members of Mayor Warren's administration were involved in that cover up.

It was Singeltary being fired that made him a martyr in some people's eyes, rather than a co-conspirator.

It was this status as a "martyr" that led some people to call for Singletary to run for mayor against the increasingly unpopular and scandal-ridden Lovely Warren. People forgot the residency requirement for mayoral candidates and, despite the requirement that the chief of police be a Rochester resident within one year of appointment, he never moved into Rochester.

So that went nowhere.

His later nine-hour testimony regarding this conspiracy of silence was an example of a tedious Opera Bouffe that did nothing to make him look like a wounded innocent but more like a none too clever man who got caught up in a situation that made Singletary look like a fool.

In a very terse, tepid statement from his attorneys, it was revealed that Singletary was satisfied with the settlement and wanted to move on with his life.

As well he might, since Singletary is running for Congress and can't have a trial hanging over his head while running a political campaign. If he lost during his campaign, it would have a negative effect on his chances of defeating his opponent, incumbent Joe Morelle.

Better to forego a trial.

Not that the chances are very good that Singletary will win against Morelle.

As unlikable as he is, Morelle has an organized political machine backing him and a huge war chest with which to finance his campaign.

Singletary has no previous experience with the shadier workings of party politics and has nowhere near the campaign funding that Joe Morelle has

Singletary was drafted by Monroe County GOP Chairman Bernie Iacovangelo, a part-time county resident who was notorious for the lack of support he gave to local Republicans in their campaigns last year. 

The chairman's thinking is that Singletary, as a Black man, would attract the Black vote in a predetermined sort of way, and that Black voters would get Singletary elected even though he was a Republican.

Yes, Singletary became a Republican only for this endorsement, failing to realize that several qualified Black Republicans running for City Council lost...to Black Democrats!

Both Iacovangelo and Singletary failed to see the logic in these political defeats in Democratic Rochester.

Their odds are only slightly better in the Republican controlled county towns, where there are fewer Black voters who tend to be Democrats.

But the county towns are also filled with White Republicans who left Rochester to get away from Blacks.

We might as well be honest about that.

The logic of that situation, which Iacovangelo, in his hatred of Joe Morelle has ignored, will ultimately defeat Singletary.

But, for Singletary, at least, his lawsuit against Rochester is settled. He can run against Joe Morelle without that hanging over his head.

But it won't stop people from talking about him or his time as chief of police.

Or his part in the conspiracy of silence regarding the death of Daniel Prude.