The image above was made by combining still images from a four-minute video clip, excerpted from surveillance video from the House of Doggs restaurant in Traverse City. In the video clip, off-duty Traverse City Police officer Joseph Soffredine initiates contact with a male restaurant patron. City officials released the surveillance video, taken Feb. 7 at about 2 a.m., after the Record-Eagle filed a state Freedom of Information Act request. City police initially denied the request, but the Record-Eagle appealed, and the city released a redacted version that obscured the faces of others involved in the incident.
TRAVERSE CITY -- Traverse City police officer Joseph L. Soffredine grabbed a man by the shirt and slammed him against a stool at a downtown restaurant, surveillance video shows.
Soffredine, 38, physically confronted Adam A. Aldridge after a verbal exchange escalated around 2 a.m. on Feb. 7 at the House of Doggs restaurant on Union Street in Traverse City.
The Record-Eagle obtained the restaurant surveillance video through multiple state Freedom of Information Act requests.
Aldridge told police his friend was intoxicated and asked Soffredine how his food was, but the off-duty police officer did not respond.
"Joe wasn't interested in talking," police reports show.
"He grabbed a hold of me and slammed me into a, into my table and knocked my beverage over, you know, and kind of spilled some of it on my, on my girlfriend," Aldridge told Grand Traverse County Undersheriff Nathan Alger. "And I couldn't tell you what I said or anything that happened to, you know, make him snap to where he grabbed me."
Soffredine told the night manager who kicked him out of the House of Doggs someone called him a "skin-headed Nazi" and a "useless pig," reports show. Soffredine denied being a police officer, Anthony Gilland, the manager said.
Aldridge said Soffredine was "wasted," and Gilland reached a similar assessment.
"You could definitely tell that he had been drinking heavy stuff, not just beer," Gilland told Alger. "I could smell it on his breath. He wasn't exactly able to stand up very well on his own, he was wobbling side-to-side when he was outside and slurring his words, so yeah, I'm pretty sure he was really, really drunk."
Aldridge and Soffredine spoke and shook hands outside the restaurant, and Soffredine returned to the restaurant where he ordered food and sat quietly by himself near the exit, reports show. Soffredine also tried to buy Aldridge a hotdog after the incident, but he refused.
Aldridge did not file a criminal complaint, but Soffredine's actions prompted an internal police probe that resulted in his four-week, unpaid suspension. He returned to the Traverse City Police Department last month as a full-time road patrol officer, but did not undergo a probationary period or face any job restrictions.
"I don't really want to pursue it," Aldridge said Monday evening. "Everybody makes mistakes."
Soffredine drank alcohol at Kilkenny's and Dillinger's Pub shortly before he ventured across the street to the popular hot dog eatery. A woman reported the assault to city police more than a week later, and the department placed Soffredine on paid suspension while they investigated.
City police closed their investigation, and said they found nothing to warrant a criminal complaint against Soffredine. City police Capt. Brian Heffner did not respond to calls for comment.
Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Alan Schneider said in an incident that involves something such as a push, authorities typically don't charge unless the victim files a complaint, with exceptions for cases of domestic abuse or intimidation. Schneider declined to discuss the incident further until he completes his review of the city police department's internal investigation.
But Schneider on Monday charged Soffredine with drunken driving after he crashed and burned his vehicle shortly after the House of Doggs incident.
The Grand Traverse Sheriff's Department launched its own internal investigation to determine whether the two deputies appropriately handled the crash, and they continue to investigate.
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- TC officer may still be cited in crash
- Soffredine suspended; disturbance probed
- Witnesses: Officer 'flying' before crash
- Report: No ice on road when officer crashed
- Editorial: Sheriff takes aim at double-standard past
- Handling of officer's crash prompts probe
- Officer legally unscathed after crash
