Forensic expert says policeman followed procedure in cuffing Monica Raab

Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 09:20 Written by Cindy Nevitt Wednesday, 22 February 2012 06:00

An unlicensed trailer led to shoving an officer and cuffs on a doctor’s wife. A civil suit alleges permanent injury

OCEAN CITY — The only thing the policeman didn’t do right when he handcuffed the doctor’s wife in a May 2010 incident was he didn’t do it sooner, according to one forensic expert.

At the request of The Gazette, Dr. John White, a forensic psychologist and former police sergeant in internal affairs, analyzed a civil lawsuit filed by Monica Raab against the city of Ocean City and Patrolman Jesse Scott Ruch.

In White’s opinion, Ruch – depending upon municipal ordinances – may have been following police procedure when he called for an unlicensed trailer to be towed from the road in front of the Raab home and when he subsequently handcuffed Monica Raab for her actions during the encounter.

“If I thought he did something wrong, I would tell you. So far, I don’t see anything where he didn’t follow procedure if his explanation is accurate,” said White, an associate professor of psychology at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, after reviewing the 17-page police report Ruch filed following the May 11, 2010 incident at 233 W. Atlantic Blvd.

In a 44-page complaint, received by the U.S. District Court on Nov. 21, 2011, Raab, the wife of physician Gary Raab of Ocean City Family Practice, alleges she was permanently injured in the encounter. She is suing the city for violation of her constitutional rights and is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and other costs.

Raab’s attorney, Paul R. Rizzo in Warren, did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

The incident, which resulted in no charges being filed, began around 9 a.m. on a day early in May 2010 when Ruch noticed an unlicensed trailer – “out of place for the neighborhood,” he said in his report – on the street in front of the Raab home in the Gardens section of Ocean City.

When he was unable to obtain information from a search of records on the trailer’s vehicle identification number, Ruch called for a tow truck. The incident escalated into a physical altercation after Raab and Ruch exchanged words over the trailer, which Raab said belonged to her brother-in-law, who lived two blocks away. According to the police report, Raab approached Ruch as he was filling out paperwork for a summons for the violation and the tow. In her lawsuit, Raab claims Ruch told her he was “getting rid of the trash on the street” and that, when she informed him of the identity of the trailer’s owner, responded, “I don’t care who the trailer belongs to – it is going to be towed.”

New Jersey Motor Vehicle Law: Title 39 (N.J.S. 39:3-4) states: Unregistered vehicles are not permitted to be parked on a public highway, and police officers are authorized to remove such vehicles from public highways. Further, N.J.S. 39:4-56.5 addresses the abandonment of vehicles, which is defined as: “A vehicle which has remained on the highway or the property in excess of 48 hours or without current license plates for any period.”

“With the unlicensed vehicle, he followed procedure,” said White, who, as a police investigator in Texas, worked on cases similar to that of Monica Raab vs. city of Ocean City and Officer Jesse Scott Ruch. “In talking with the citizen, he followed procedure. He may not have followed procedure when he should have arrested her. If she’s flailing her arms (as described in the police report) and she continues, he has no choice but to handcuff her. Actually, taking her into custody becomes an option at that point.”

Details of the confrontation differ in the accounts given by Ruch and Raab.

Raab’s suit alleges she was injured when, “without providing any warning or explanation for his actions, Officer Ruch violently grabbed plaintiff’s right arm from behind and forcibly pushed plaintiff to the ground while handcuffing her.”

In his report, Ruch said he “took control of her arm by the right wrist” when Raab tried to force him out of the way with her forearm after she, her daughter and a neighbor moved the trailer from the street to the driveway. “I became concerned for her safety because she was slapping at my hand and then against my thumb,” he said in his report. After Raab fell and began thrashing about, Ruch reported, “I managed to get hold of her right wrist and placed one cuff on her to prevent her from striking me.”

“If she really did strike him, he could arrest her for assault, but he didn’t,” said White, whose expert testimony has been called upon in court cases such as this. “As for grabbing her arm: he says she came at him. According to procedure, you have to handcuff them for your safety and their safety.”

Ruch is acquainted with the Raabs – Monica as a classmate, her husband as his personal physician. He is also much larger than Monica Raab.

“He said he went to high school with her,” White said. “But an officer never knows the predictability of a citizen. The report says she weighs 100 pounds and he weighs about 150 more. It could be harmful to him if she grabbed his gun. Then all hell breaks loose.

“You have to take control of the situation and handcuff them,” White said. “He would have to say in a court of law he did.”

According to Ruch’s report, Raab “became enraged” and “her face seemed to be wretched into that of a person gone mad” after she wrenched her wrist from his grasp and fell. The suit accuses Ruch of continuing to “pull and twist plaintiff’s right arm over and over again, causing her to repeatedly hit her head on the pavement.”

Ruch, who had radioed for support earlier when Raab had tried to move the trailer by herself and fell, was then joined by Ocean City Police Department Lt. William Campbell, who instructed Ruch to remove the handcuffs from Raab. The trailer was described as four feet wide by five feet long.

“The strange thing is when the lieutenant came,” White said. “In Dallas, we’d have to arrest you. Either the lieutenant thought he did not have to handcuff her or the prominence of the family made him think that.”

Before the confrontation turned physical, Ruch, in his report, described Raab’s reaction to her failure to move the trailer by herself: “She turned and ran into the front yard of 233 W. Atlantic Blvd. ... I watched as she took her night shirt off approximately halfway across the lawn and then walked bare-chested toward the house.”

White finds Ruch’s account of this scenario, odd as it is, believable. “Why did she take her shirt off and walk in the house bare-chested? It seems totally bizarre,” he said. “He could make up so many things. Why do that? What was her purpose? What was she thinking?”

Raab’s daughter, Hillary, provides some clues. She is quoted in Ruch’s report as saying, “You need to talk to me as I’m the only sane person here.” She is further quoted as saying, “Mom has been going nuts because of that neighbor over the fence.”

Campbell, who entered the Raab home after Raab was uncuffed, reported that, “Gary (Raab) revealed that Monica came home from the hospital only two weeks ago for treatment related to the stress caused by a neighbor.”

“The daughter’s statements, that the mother is under stress and acting crazy, may indicate she was going out of control, and that’s not good for her case,” White said. “Her behavior does not sound rational.”

Unknown facts – such as the officer’s demeanor in dealing with Raab and whether he has a history of complaints against him – are not enough to alter the unfavorable impression Raab makes in this case, White said. An Open Public Records Act request, filed by The Gazette for Ruch’s personnel file regarding complaints lodged against him, was denied by the city.

“The daughter says she’s nuts because of stress from the neighbor,” White said. “What’s the officer supposed to do? Let her throw a fit? Let her hurt herself? She’s already hurting herself in this situation.”

While White said, “it sounds like Ruch followed procedure to the T,” he said he would have handled the situation differently from the start by knocking on the door to the home and inquiring as to trailer’s ownership.

“It’s clearly a violation to have a vehicle on the street without a license,” he said, adding this case may have ended much differently if Ruch had used such discretion.

Ocean City recently paid $250,000 to settle two lawsuits brought by city employees, and faces ongoing lawsuits involving other public employees.

City solicitor Dorothy McCrosson said the case would take at least a year before it reaches trial. White said he does not think the case will go to trial, but if it does, “it sounds more in favor of the officer.”

He added, “But then, I thought O.J. and Casey Anthony would be guilty, too,” referring to the former NFL player acquitted in the case of murdering his wife and her friend, and the Florida mother acquitted of charges she killed her 2-year-old daughter. “You can never predict a jury.”

 

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