LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — A former elected official for Ovid and his spouse are suing the town of Ovid in federal courtroom, alleging the chief of police, with the information of metropolis leaders, violated their civil rights.
Dan and Linda Lupu filed the case within the U.S. Federal Western District Courtroom in late February.
The 9-page lawsuit alleges Ovid Chief of Police Lisa Rousseau initiated what lawyer Jack Rucker calls a “sham arson investigation” following a July 23, 2023 hearth on the couple’s house.
A screenshot of physique cam video of the fire-damaged Lupu house, taken Aug. 1, 2023.
Dan was a member of the village board within the early Nineteen Eighties, earlier than Ovid turned a metropolis. He served as village president throughout this time.
Rousseau didn’t reply to an electronic mail or telephone name. Whereas on the Ovid Municipal Constructing on Tuesday, she left the constructing by means of one other door and prevented the 6 Information Investigates Workforce after being instructed by one in all her officers that the crew needed to talk to her concerning the lawsuit.
Mary Perrien, Ovid’s Mayor, responded to the 6 Information Investigates Workforce through electronic mail.
“We cannot comment on the pending litigation but will say that we believe the lawsuit is without merit and look forward to our day in court,” she wrote.
Learn the lawsuit:
Complaints-LUPUDownload
The mayor referred 6 Information Investigates to attorneys representing the town for additional questions. These attorneys declined to touch upon this report.
The couple claims the chief violated their rights when she entered the property and ordered remediation staff to go away as a result of the insurance coverage firm had reopened the hearth investigation.
Dan and Linda Lupu throughout an interview with WLNS 6 Information. (WLNS)
“Our police chief is a bully,” Dan instructed 6 Information in an interview Tuesday. “She pushes her authority way past what she’s legally entitled to, and she needs to be held in check.”
Physique digital camera footage obtained by means of a public data request by the couple’s lawyer reveals Rousseau telling staff they needed to vacate the property as a result of she was “securing the scene” on the request of the insurance coverage firm on Aug. 1, 2023.
The footage has been edited to take away profanity and private info.
The video reveals Rousseau placing police tape across the fire-damaged house. That police tape joined the hearth scene tape already in place.
Insurance coverage officers licensed remediation staff to start work on the house two days after the hearth on July 25, 2023. Work formally started on July 31, with staff getting into the property and eradicating belongings.
Former regulation enforcement officers who spoke to the 6 Information Investigates Workforce on background known as the appliance of the police tape and securing the property days after it had been launched and other people being allowed to enter “extremely odd.”
Learn the redacted police report:
Redacted Police ReportDownload
In a report written by Officer Jaclyn Allen, with supplemental info by Rosseau, the chief wrote she was confronted by Clinton County Undersheriff Mike Gute over her look on the fire-damaged house.
“Gute advised me I don’t work for the Insurance company that Sherry [Bos, insurance investigator] has no business telling me what to do,” Rousseau wrote.
Gute, she wrote, knowledgeable her “I had already ‘lost the scene,’ and would not be able to get a search warrant.”
The Lupus declare of their lawsuit that the insurance coverage firm reopened the investigation due to Rousseau.
“We believe Rousseau told Auto Owners Insurance that there was an active investigation when she knew that there was not, because that crew wasn’t able to work,” attorney Jack Rucker says. “It was one of the contributing factors that black mold ended up infesting this house.”
