There is a relatively rare case developing in Connecticut where Professor Minati Roychoudhuri, 62, has been charged with making a false police report after charging that she was racially profiled by a police officer. A review of the dash cam video contradicted factual assertions made by Roychoudhuri in her sworn statement.
Roychoudhuri was pulled over on May 9th by an officer and cited for failure to drive in the established lane. A month after the citation, she filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Public Safety:
Dear Sir/Madam
I was traveling to Wethersfield on Route 15/5 to attend a meeting 9th May. I was on the left lane on route 15 and had to take exit 85. After the Brainard Airport exit, and after the merging lane ended, I signaled and went to the right lane to take exit 85. An unmarked police car with flashing light stopped me on the ramp after I had taken the exit. The policeman asked me if I could speak English and if I knew why he had stopped me. I said, “yes” to speaking English and “no” to why he had stopped me. He then asked me for my driver’s license and registration. He returned with an envelope and said that I could simply mail in the infraction.
The officer did not give me any reason as to why had stopped me. His asking if I could speak English shows that he had racially profiled me and was not able to give me a concrete reason for stopping me. Further, the officer had checked “Hispanic” in the race category in the infraction ticket. I am a Professor in English at Capital Community College, I teach about diversity and the negative impact of racial profiling, I have now become a target of the same insidious behavior! It is easy to connect the dots with the nationwide racial profiling which has led to serious consequences. I request that my infraction charges be dropped and action be taken against the officer. I have talked with the Senator and Legislator of my constituency regarding this matter and I am sending a copy of this letter to them as well.
Thank you in advance, Sincerely, Minati Roychoudhuri
The police conducted an investigation and reviewed the tape. This is the transcript and the investigators concluded that the officer never asked if Roychoudhuri could speak English and did in fact explain the basis for the citation:
Officer: Hi ma’am, do you know why I’m stopping you today?
Roychoudhuri: No
O: OK. There’s that big gore area with white lines painted across it and you cut in front of it, in front of me, thinking it’s a lane or something. You have to wait until it’s a dotted white line. License and registration.
(She handed him insurance, so he requested the registration again, which she gave him)
O: Thank you. This is for your Subaru car.
R: This is my Subaru car.
O: Is this a station wagon, color green? The plate doesn’t match what’s on there.
R: [Inaudible]…I thought that was my [inaudible]
O: I’ll run the plate and see what it comes back with.
R: This is the [inaudible] that I have.
(Officer returns to his car for three minutes to write out the ticket for failure to drive in the established lane)
O: Ma’am. So I wrote you the infraction for that improper lane change that you did.
R: Please, you know, I probably crossed over there, and that’s why I did it.
O: OK.
R: Obviously I did that.
O: [Inaudible]
R: My [inaudible] is absolutely clean.
O: Ok. So I wrote you an infraction for that improper lane change that you did.
R: OK.
O: The answer date is on the front of it and the instructions are on the back of it.
R: Wait, what?
O: It’s a mail in infraction. All you have to do is mail in, either a check or money order, and mail it in.
R: OK.
O: Alright.
R: Thank you.
The Internal Affairs investigators interviewed Roychoudhuri in person and she repeated the same claims of racial profiling as well as specific allegation that there was no explanation of the violation. She then signed a statement that it is a crime for her to make any claims that she does not believe to be true in an effort to mislead a public servant.
Roychoudhuri has now been arrested for giving a false statement in the second degree. The state code mandates:
Sec. 53a-157b. (Formerly Sec. 53a-157). False statement in the second degree: Class A misdemeanor.
(a) A person is guilty of false statement in the second degree when he intentionally makes a false written statement under oath or pursuant to a form bearing notice, authorized by law, to the effect that false statements made therein are punishable, which he does not believe to be true and which statement is intended to mislead a public servant in the performance of his official function.
(b) False statement in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.
The videotape does appear to show that Roychoudhuri misrepresented the officer’s statements. However, there is always a concern about the police criminally charging citizens who come forward with abuse allegations. Notably, while Roychoudhuri does stand contradicted on the facts regarding the questioning of whether she spoke interest and lack of explanation of the ticket, her allegation of profiling generally could still be true. The mere publication of the transcript is highly discrediting in itself. The question is whether a criminal charge, even a misdemeanor, is warranted in such a case.
In the meantime, various people have gone on the Facebook account of the Capital Community College to call for the school to “fire the liar.” Once again, my concern is that a professor made an allegation of profiling that could still be an honestly held belief (based on the minor infraction used to pull over her car). I am not saying that this was a valid belief in these circumstances but some complaints made be based on subjective viewpoints. There is always a fear of a chilling effect on people coming forward to express such concerns if they can be charged with a crime if police clear the officers. On the other hand, her statement did indeed appear to contain very specific and false elements despite her swearing to their accuracy.
Do you believe a criminal charge and/or university punishment is warranted in such a case?
Regardless of the chip she might have on her shoulder, she lied in a most graphic manner, attempted to destroy the career of a police officer who was fine tuning her driving habits and arguably her potential safety and the safety of others. This is a crime at the very least and might be visited in civil court as well. An apology alone should not be acceptable. If the pendulum must swing in one direction where the police are held accountable then it has to swing in the other as well.
She should be held accountable under the law. What the university does would depend on how her lack of ethics pertained to her job. If there is a connection, i.e. she teaches a subject in which this behavior is integral then the university would have cause to dismiss her. For example if a professor taught a course on professional ethics in journalism and then was convicted for plagiarism, one would expect the professor to be dismissed.
There are two sides to a meeting such as this, the intention of the alleged affront and the perception by the person alleging to have been damaged. Often times a third party must decide the perception of the intention. From the transcripts there doesn’t appear to be any intention whatsoever pertaining to the driver’s allegations. Coupled with her graphic lies, it would appear that she has committed a crime.
Everyone knows when you go to Mexico you do not drink the water. Not everyone knows when you visit California you should give yourself a 2 week incubation period before attempting to express political opinions. It’s obvious from this article that JT got infected while visiting our state.
– “Notably, while Roychoudhuri does stand contradicted on the facts regarding the questioning of whether she spoke interest and lack of explanation of the ticket, her allegation of profiling generally could still be true.”
– “Once again, my concern is that a professor made an allegation of profiling that could still be an honestly held belief (based on the minor infraction used to pull over her car).”
Translated: The facts shows her to be caught in an outright lie but we’ll ignore the facts and give more weight to her “alleged” feelings.
Professor, for someone so concerned with the rule of law, where in the world is your objectivity with regards to THIS case?
Olly – in the dash cam transcript she twice admits she did it. Does she think only white people get to use the gores?
This woman lied about the officer racially profiling her. I wonder how many other people lie about this. Prosecute her to the full extent of the law.
The arrest has a “chilling effect” on people making false charges, not people who tell the truth about legitimate misconduct.
BTW, if you’ve read the article in the Atlantic on Wilson, his life is pretty much ruined and the SJW Atlantic journalist is still lying about poor little Mike Brown and how its still just unclear as to what happened.
“Ferguson” with all the riots, deaths, property damage, and ruined lives occurred because a couple people LIED deliberately and repeatedly about what Wilson did. “He had his hands up and the cop shot him in cold blood!!”
I’m surprised Professor T. is playing the “We mustn’t discourage others from reporting the police” card. Yeah, we wouldn’t want to discourage liars from lying about experience with the Cops and forgoing a big cash payout and few ruined innocent police officers.
I hate liars. Hang her high. And as someone else stated the SJW’s and cultural Marxists need to become better liars – you’re always on candid camera when you talk to the Cops sweetheart.
“WTF does diversity and negative impact of racial profiling have to do with teaching ENGLISH”
LOL! You must not know much about College English classes – the last thing they do is teach about English Literature. She probably doesn’t even know who Shakespeare is – aside from being a DWM.
Without the dash-cam video, the media would have had a field day with this. Another out of control cop stopping someone who was not lily white.
Let’s play the race game. Is CCC professor a US citizen or employed on H-1B visa? Trump fans gonna like answer.
I would like to know what this agency does when officers’ reports are contradicted by recordings. Do they file criminal charges for those crimes?
” Get on the outrage train! Woooo wooooo. All aboard!”
By George, she’s got it!
Oh…..wait!!! I get it!!
She is probably teaching English as a second language and has to make sure to instill in the new English learners the appropriate levels of ethnic outrage and ensure that they see everything through a lens of discrimination and racial profiling.
They need to have the proper paranoid attitude installed in order to be properly outraged and get their official victim status.
Forget about being able to read, write, fill out job applications! It is all about the outrage. Get on the outrage train! Woooo wooooo. All aboard!
“More important than the small issue being entirely false, the episode she invented speaks a larger truth.”
Chief Consort is… WINNING!
This Officer should sue this woman for profiling him. Drag her lying butt into court and expose her for the fraud she is. She should have a “dashcam” put in her classroom to prove she actually teaches English.
Furthermore, she states: I am a Professor in English at Capital Community College, I teach about diversity and the negative impact of racial profiling,
WTF does diversity and negative impact of racial profiling have to do with teaching ENGLISH?
She should be teaching her subject not being a shill for spooling up racial issues. Sounds to me like she is short changing her students by skipping teaching them the subject that they expect to learn…..English.
It is bad enough that many in Community College are almost functionally illiterate. She could at least do the job she is getting paid to do.
Let’s just keep making excuses for her malicious and illegal behavior and wonder why we are living in a toxic stew of hate.
DBQ – this is going to be a great final lesson for her students.
More important than the small issue being entirely false, the episode she invented speaks a larger truth.
A local news service reported that she graduated from The Al Sharptongue School of Ethics at NYU. Is there anything to this story?
Whoa! Let’s back up. The investigation was by cops of an accusation against one of their own. I think she needs to see the tape (as I said) with some sort of verification that it hasn’t been altered. What we have that “proves” that she’s a liar is a transcript written by, guess who?, yep, the police. She has no advocate in this investigation while the officer has all his fellow officers who are probably ready to claim that they saw the incident and he was nice as can be and she was all bxtchy and tried to drag him by her car when she left the scene. OK. I’ve gone a bit overboard, but we don’t know if the transcript is true and complete. When dealing with cops investigating their own, a bit of caution is in order.
It was trans-truth.
She felt racially profiled and abused, therefore she was.
Facts are just part of the BadWhite patriarchal hegemony.
Maybe she was upset at something else at the time and focused her anger on this encounter. I’ve been mad at X and said something nasty about Y online over a simple disagreement because Y happened to be a more convenient target, then regretted it.
This is, in your mind, a valid excuse??? Really?
She sat down and wrote an official letter of complaint about something that DID NOT happen in the attempt to get the officer fired or disciplined. She went OUT of her way to harm someone.
Why she did it is a completely different issue. Perhaps she is a paranoid who sees racial issues everywhere. Perhaps she is a person who wants to capitalize on the current, ‘get whitey’ mantra.
Who knows. It doesn’t matter and you giving her all sorts of excuses for her malicious and illegal behavior is the reason that we have this toxic atmosphere.