An off-duty cop with a history of excessive force incidents allegedly elbowed another man in the face during a fight at a Little League baseball game, police and league officials said.
Dominick Comitale, an officer for the Troy Police Department, was charged with second-degree harassment after the fight over field cleanup at a Twin Town Little League game on Saturday during the league’s opening day for its fall season, the Times Union reports.
Comitale, who was off-duty at the time, was released with an appearance ticket. Police in North Greenbush, just east of Albany, said an investigation into the incident is ongoing, but league officials now want the cop who was once investigated by the FBI not to return to the field.
“We are committed to the safety and security of our children and families and will continue to work with the North Greenbush police as necessary,” Kyle Belokopitsky, an attorney for the league, told the newspaper.
Deputy Police Chief Daniel DeWolf said department brass are aware of Comitale’s arrest, adding that officers are expected to conduct themselves professionally while both on and off the job.
“The incident will be discussed and an internal investigation will be conducted,” DeWolf wrote in an email.
Messages seeking additional comment from police and Comitale were not immediately returned Monday morning.
Comitale, meanwhile, is no stranger to allegations of brutality. He and another officer from the Troy Police Department were previously investigated by the FBI for allegations of excessive force after a man claimed Comitale and Officer Justin Ashe violated his civil rights by beating, pepper spraying and using a Taser on him in a hospital emergency room in 2011. A jury in 2015 found Comitale and Ashe guilty of using excessive force, according to the Troy Record, and the victim received a $39,000 settlement.
In 2014, Comitale was exonerated of excessive force allegations in connection to a 2013 arrest of a Hudson Valley Community College football player, but an internal probe ruled he violated several department provisions. City officials later settled the case for $60,001, the Times Union reports.
In 2013, Comitale and another officer allegedly beat a man outside his home for playing loud music. The city later settled that case for $60,000. And two years earlier, in 2011, city officials also doled out $15,000 to settle an allegation of excessive force against Comitale for stopping a man with an open container of alcohol, according to the Times Union.
