By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
BAY CITY — A Vassar letter carrier has filed a federal lawsuit here against a Vassar Police Department officer, alleging the officer fabricated evidence to accuse the mailman of stealing Vicodin being sent by the Department of Veterans Affairs to a city resident.
Letter carrier Jeffrey Nichols, in an Oct. 30, 2014 lawsuit filed against Officer Robert Barker and the city of Vassar, states he was charged with larceny of the pain-killing medication in June of 2014, and alleges Barker “falsely represented” that Barker interviewed a woman living across the street from the man who was supposed to receive the Vicodin.
Barker and the city deny that allegation.
Nichols alleges Barker “relied upon the fabricated interview … to establish probable cause to obtain a warrant for (Nichols’) arrest.” Barker denies that charge.
Nichols states in documents filed in U.S. District Court in Bay City that he “scanned and delivered a package containing Vicodin” to a city resident’s home on Aug. 15, 2013.
Nichols maintains that the female neighbor of the Vicodin recipient “has denied ever being interviewed by (Barker).” The female neighbor, according to the lawsuit, told Barker that she watched her male neighbor pick up his mail on Aug. 15, 2013, but that the package of Vicodin wasn’t there.
Barker asserts in court documents that the neighbor made such a statement to the officer.
Nichols — alleging Barker knowingly fabricated that Barker interviewed the female neighbor — maintains his constitutional rights were violated by Barker. The woman has denied being interviewed by Barker, according to the lawsuit.
In their answer to the lawsuit, Barker and the city maintain that the man who was supposed to receive the medication, and the man’s sister, “were outside when the mail was delivered (Aug. 15) and the medication was not there.”
The medication was supposed to arrive at the man’s home from Veterans Affairs on Aug. 14, 2013, according to Nichols’ lawsuit. Nichols alleges that the sister of the man who was supposed to receive the Vicodin told Vassar Postmaster Stacey Middleton on Nov. 1, 2013 that the man’s home “had been broken into in the past and that there were unsavory characters living on the (street) that abused drugs.”
Nichols alleges that when Barker and Special Agent Anastasia Nerger of the federal Office of Inspector General interviewed him on Sept. 20, 2013, Barker told Nichols that “We know you did it.”
Nichols alleges that on Nov. 20, 2013, as Nerger and Barker spoke with Nichols inside the Vassar post office, Barker made “numerous inappropriate comments, demonstrating his malicious intent towards (Nichols).” Nichols alleges Barker called him a “chicken shit” and demanded that Nichols “‘stand up and be a man and admit what you did,’ or words to that effect.”
Nichols alleges Barker told him “‘Your job is done here and you will not be able to pay for Thanksgiving this year either,’ or words to that effect.”
Barker, according to court documents, denies making such statements.
Nichols alleges Barker arrested him on June 20, 2014 and that on that same day, Postmaster Middleton placed Nichols “on an off-duty status without pay as a direct result of (Barker’s) unlawful arrest.” In July of 2014, Tuscola County District Judge Kim David Glaspie granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss the larceny charge, according to Nichols’ lawsuit.
Nichols states he was returned to full-time status at his post office job on July 28, 2014.
The city of Vassar failed to property train or supervise Barker, and has been “deliberately indifferent to the need for training,” Nichols alleged in his lawsuit. The city denies the allegations.
Barker and the city maintain that even absent the interview that Nichols claims was fabricated, “there are sufficient facts to support the Magistrate’s conclusion that probable cause (to obtain a warrant for Nichols’ arrest) existed.”
Nichols seeks a minimum of $75,000 in addition to costs, interest and attorney fees. A settlement conference is set for July 29 before U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington.