sacramento cop under arrest.. filed false report regarding reason for stopping a black motorist [View all]

[Demovictory9]

The police department said in a brief announcement Thursday afternoon that it had arrested Alexa Palubicki, 26, after being alerted to potential problems by other officers, and Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s office filed two felony counts in the case late Thursday.

That felony complaint says Palubicki filed a false report when she wrote that she stopped to question a motorist at the gas station after seeing his vehicle “make the turn without utilizing a turn signal.”

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The case began at 12:33 a.m. on July 11 at the Shell gas station at 225 Jibboom St., near Discovery Park, documents obtained by The Bee say.

Palubicki and her partner, another female officer, spotted a 27-year-old Black man driving a gray 2020 Nissan Altima that “abruptly” pulled into the Shell station and parked across two parking spaces, the documents say.

The driver got out and the officers approached him to “advise him that he parked illegally,” the documents say.

Palubicki returned to the patrol car to run a records check and discovered the driver had a suspended license, the documents say.

Her partner looked into the car and thought she saw marijuana in a plastic cup in the console, leading to a search of the vehicle despite repeated protests from the motorist that they did not have permission to search the car, the documents say.

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By the time the charges were dropped, police investigators had become aware of allegations that the probable cause cited for approaching the motorist had come under question inside the department.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article251223169.html