Police officer accused of road-rage incident while off duty
A Glendale police officer is facing a misdemeanor battery charge in connection with an alleged road-rage incident while off duty, prompting officials to place him on administrative leave.
The Burbank city attorney's office filed the charge Dec. 10 against Glendale Police Officer Eric Ritter, who pleaded not guilty to striking Armando Alvarez, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents.
When Glendale city administrators found out about the case, they placed the officer on leave, said Human Resources Director Matt Doyle. Calls to Ritter's attorney, Michael Severo, were not returned on Wednesday.
The alleged road-rage incident occurred about noon on Oct. 14, officials said. Ritter and Alvarez had been cutting each other off on city streets, Burbank Police Sgt. Robert Quesada said.
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-- Veronica Rocha, Glendale News-Press / Times Community News
EDITOR'S PICKS:
No one can have any tolerance with impatient drivers and road rage. It becomes exacerbated when two drivers begin raging against each other. Not knowing the facts I wouldn't make any snap judgements except that some officers of the law seem to retain a "holier than thou" or higher privileged position in knowing their fellow officers will not cite them for breaking traffic laws. This becomes compounded when civilians see this and start asking "Who does he think he is?". This is what creates disrespect for our officers and our laws.
Posted by: Dave | December 23, 2010 at 11:09 AM
Just another hero......A police officer is arrested every day in America......
Posted by: Streets | December 23, 2010 at 02:15 PM
He's white, so as you can tell the man who commented first wanders onto some un-debatable rhetoric to conceal his little racism. Cop hitting civilians? What kind of law enforcement is that? He didn't bother... dialing 911? What a shocker! Bet he was on his phone to, assuming he's innocent leaves me tons of room to assume he's guilty, maybe of other reported assaults. Lets see if we find this crooked cops beat other folks. Good report La Times.
Posted by: Montana Gold- | December 23, 2010 at 09:54 PM
This cop should be thrown OFF the force. Period. Absolutely unacceptable behavior for an officer of the law. AND: he should forfeit ALL pay since the time of incident. What's taking these turkeys in government so long to release this guy? I can see that there is a lot of work yet to be done if we are ever to "straighten" out the government of this country at all levels.
Posted by: Dennis Bertrand | December 24, 2010 at 07:44 PM
This is unacceptable behavior for a policeman and he should be immediately terminated, with forfeiture of pay from the day of incident. What's taking the "authorities" so long? Could it be that the police unions are a little too strong? Maybe we should break up the government unions and return the government to the people. It's going to have to happen, folks, sooner or later.
Posted by: Dennis Bertrand | December 25, 2010 at 08:22 AM
Way to make your fellow men in blue proud Mr. Ritter.
You must make your mother proud!
Posted by: westsidejesse | December 27, 2010 at 04:19 PM