POLICE: 'YOU FIT THE PROFILE'

ALBANY-- The cops in the marked patrol car had circled through West
Hill a couple times keeping an eye on their female target. They were
part of the Street Drug Unit, an aggressive squad assigned to help
rid Albany's neighborhoods of drug dealers and addicts blamed for
much of the city's problems.

It was early evening and already dark when the patrol car's emergency
lights flashed in the rearview mirror of Lisa Shutter's Mitsubishi
sedan on Quail Street, just off Central Avenue.

Police records show the officers called out a "Signal 38" to alert a
dispatcher they were onto something suspicious and about to pull
someone over. They would later write in a report that they had pulled
her over for "failure to signal," although no ticket was issued,
according to police records shared with the Times Union.

The actions of police in the minutes that followed would end in
controversy rather than with an arrest. They would also leave
Shutter, a 28-year-old single mother from Ravena, shaken and angry
after one of the officers allegedly inserted his finger into
Shutter's vagina on a public street during an apparent search for drugs.

When it was over, "I pulled off down the road and I just cried for
probably a half hour," Shutter said. "I called my dad. ... I felt
like I had been basically raped."

The incident has triggered an ongoing internal affairs investigation
by the Albany Police Department.

But the handling of that investigation has raised questions about
whether the department has sought to cover up the incident. Shutter
claims Burris Beattie, a commander in internal affairs, dissuaded her
from reporting the incident to a civilian police oversight board.

The board, which was formed in 2001 in response to community concerns
about the handling of internal police investigations, is empowered to
monitor cases involving claims of brutality and civil rights
violations against any officer.

"He said they (internal affairs) would do a better job," Shutter
said, recounting her conversation with Beattie. "He said they would
like to keep it 'internal' ... that that's how they like to handle things."

Jason S. Allen, acting chairman of Albany's Citizens' Police Review
Board, did not respond to a request for comment about whether all
civilian complaints against officers are forwarded to the board.
Instead, someone from the review board, which maintains an office at
Albany Law School, contacted the department two weeks ago and alerted
them that a Times Union reporter was asking questions about their
policies, according to a police department source.

One of the officers at the scene, Matthew Fargione, is the son of a
former Albany police narcotics lieutenant, Thomas Fargione, who is a
longtime friend of Chief James W. Tuffey. Fargione headed the drug
unit for years when Tuffey was a narcotics detective in the 1980s and
early 1990s, and the two men also worked together for the State
Emergency Management Office.

Tuffey said friendships do not influence his decision-making in
instances where an officer may face discipline.

The other officer was Nick Abrams, according to records shared with
the Times Union.

Shutter said internal affairs detectives told her that an officer
involved in the incident had been suspended, but they wouldn't say
why and declined to identify any of the officers by name, or to have
her look at their photographs. Neither Fargione nor Abrams has been
suspended, sources said.

A member of the Citizens' Police Review Board, who spoke on condition
of anonymity because only the chairman is authorized to make public
statements, said some members of the board have privately suspected
that the department may be hiding cases of police misconduct.

In other instances, the internal affairs reports are so poorly
organized and investigated the board has had trouble reaching
decisions and often sends them back for more investigation. The board
is supposed to appoint a monitor for complaints involving civil
rights violations or allegations of excessive force.

"Whether the letter of the law says that this should be the process,
the intent and spirit of the law mandates that, especially in cases
of civil rights violations, they be submitted to us for review," the
board member said. "If not this, what do we review? ... The fact they
would dissuade someone from reporting an incident and say they would
do the investigation better completely defeats the purpose of why we
were created."

Shutter said she grew increasingly unnerved by her experience with
internal affairs -- which is known as the Office of Professional
Standards -- because male detectives twice requested she wear clothes
from the night of the incident to re-enact the body search.

Tuffey declined to comment on a list of written questions submitted
by the Times Union last week, including why internal affairs
officials didn't assign a female detective on Shutter's case.

"I hold our officers to the highest standards and I expect a complete
and thorough investigation, but at this time, since there is an
ongoing internal investigation, it would be inappropriate for me to comment."

Neither officer involved in the incident has been interviewed by
internal affairs, according to departmental sources.

Shutter met once with internal affairs detectives. They refused to
give her a copy of a signed statement she made recounting the
incident, she said.

"I told them I would take a polygraph, but they told me that wasn't
necessary," Shutter said.

The incident unfolded just after 7 p.m. on Dec. 22. Shutter said
she'd just finished some last-minute holiday shopping and became
confused as she drove through West Hill looking for a friend she'd
agreed to pick up that night.

Shutter was behind the wheel of a friend's rented car, and said she
saw the police car drive past her twice before the stop.

The officer at her window grilled her about drug use and hidden crack
pipes, she said.

"You fit the profile," the officer said, according to Shutter.
"You're a white girl in a rental car."

She told the officer she had no drugs and offered to take a
Breathalyzer test, but he declined to give one, she said.

The officer then allegedly reached through her window and plucked
Shutter's cellphone from her lap.

He scrolled through the personal information in her phone, she said,
asking questions about "private calls" and someone named "Mandie,"
whose name appeared on her contacts' list.

Mandie Buxton, 28, who is Shutter's friend since childhood, was at
home when her cellphone rang that night. The man calling identified
himself as an Albany police officer and asked whether Shutter was
supposed to be picking Buxton up that night.

"I said: 'What are you talking about?' " Buxton said. "He said: 'You
don't know what I'm talking about?' and then he hung up. I called
right back and no one answered."

Ordinarily, police need a search warrant to seize or access someone's
telephone.

Before it was over, Shutter was ordered to stand outside her vehicle
with her hands on the trunk. One officer searched her body while a
second scoured the inside of the car. They also dumped the contents
of her purse and asked whether she'd spent her money on crack because
her wallet was empty.

Shutter said she never consented to a search of her vehicle, her
telephone or her body. She said she pleaded with the officer who
allegedly slid his hand down the back of her jeans, and inside her
underwear, to stop.

"I kept saying over and over ... 'If you have to search me, can you
bring me to the precinct?' " Shutter said.

A female officer was called to the scene and informed Shutter she was
there to search her body, Shutter said. The female officer patted her
down, lifted Shutter's sweater and felt along her bra strap, and made
Shutter open her mouth and lift her tongue. No reason was given.

The police found no drugs or other evidence of criminal wrongdoing
before allowing Shutter back in her car.

"He said 'you're lucky' ... and that I better not drive around there
again," Shutter said.

Shutter called Buxton and her father minutes later, crying
hysterically, they said.

Shutter's mother, Sherry, characterized her daughter's encounter with
police as a "life-changing nightmare at the hands of an Albany police officer."

"Our daughter did not deserve to be so grossly violated and I want
the officers to comprehend and be held accountable for violating our
child," she said. "I just keep telling her that 'you did not deserve this.' "