HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Peter Pan bus driver is suing two Connecticut state police officers saying they ignored video evidence when they arrested her for locking a passenger in the luggage compartment.
Wendy Alberty filed a civil rights suit in the U.S. District Court in Hartford, Connecticut, July 20 against state trooper Robert A. Hunter and Sgt. Stephen J. Samson. Her lawsuit accuses them of wrongfully arresting her and retaliation, MassLive reported.
Alberty was driving a bus from New York to Boston in Aug. 2019 when state police received a 911 call from a passenger who claimed Alberty intentionally locked her in the luggage compartment at a brief stop in Hartford, Connecticut. State police stopped the bus in Union, Connecticut and arrested Alberty.
Her lawsuit charges the two state troopers with ignoring testimony from a third trooper who reviewed footage of the stop in Hartford. The trooper told Hunter and Samson that Alberty did not intentionally lock the passenger in the luggage compartment, the Hartford Courant reported.
Nate Baber, an attorney for Alberty, told the Hartford Courant race was a factor in why troopers ignored Alberty’s testimony, while accepting the story of the passenger. Alberty is Black and the passenger is white.
The charges against Alberty were dropped in October.
At the time she was charged, Springfield, Massachusetts-based Peter Pan called Alberty an “exemplary” employee. A company official said he did not think Alberty acted intentionally.
State police and the troopers did not immediately respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
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