Peenie Wallie

Wronged restaurateur settles

The Canyon Courier
Thursday, June 24, 2004 4:58 PM MDT
by Bonnie Benjamin Skopinski

The town of Morrison paid a local restaurateur $8,500 for attorney's fees after an independent investigation demonstrated he was treated inappropriately by members of the police department. The town board of trustees instigated the investigation.

Reza Ardehali, co-owner of Tony Rigatoni's, felt he was harassed and otherwise treated unfairly after he complained to Morrison Police regarding the action of one of its officers in his bar about a year ago.

The officer threatened to cite the bar for serving liquor after midnight Sunday. In truth, legal closing time was 2 a.m.

After Ardehali complained about the incident at the police station, he was followed by an officer. He stopped at the post office for about 20 minutes. When he emerged, the officer was waiting and continued to follow him into town without siren or lights.

Ardehali pulled over on his own, concerned about what was going on. The officer charged him with two petty traffic offenses of questionable validity.

Police Chief Bob Wasko joined them and threatened to pull Ardehali's liquor license, Ardehali said.

Wasko also informed Ardehali that his driver's license had been suspended a year ago.

This was true, Ardehali said, but he wondered why Wasko hadn't told him or ticketed him until now.

Ardehali said Wasko offered to forget the ticket if he would drop the complaint. The restaurateur invited the chief to ticket him or arrest him on the spot so the matter would go on record. The chief did neither.

After that, the Morrison Police maintained a very visible presence around the restaurant, which affected his business, he said.

He filed a complaint against Wasko and the officer who had harassed him on the street.

The board of trustees brought in a former Jeffco sheriff to investigate.

Wasko was suspended for 10 days in early March 2004, and both the officer from the bar incident and the officer on the street were gone.

Wasko declined repeated invitations to explain his side of the story to the Courier.

In addition to payment of attorney's fees, the final settlement stated that the town board planned to institute a formal written procedure for dealing with citizen complaints and would monitor compliance.

Ardehali says he has had no further problems with the Morrison Police Department and is satisfied with the terms of the settlement. He signed a document stating that he would not sue.