One Niagara owner Frank Parlato has received a written apology from the state courts for his arrest by city police two years ago.

Parlato received a letter last week from Unified Court System Counsel Michael Colodner stating “it’s likely” he was arrested improperly on May 1, 2006, because he had not been made aware of a previous court date or that a bench warrant was put out against him. The letter concludes with an assurance measures will be taken to make sure such a situation does not happen to him or others in the future.

“This is a tremendous win,” said Parlato, who has maintained he was not notified of the arrest warrant prior to being handcuffed and taken into custody at his One Niagara building at 360 Rainbow Blvd. “It’s horrible when you don’t have a safeguard in place that protects a person’s rights and due process. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.”

A warrant for Parlato’s arrest was issued by Chief Niagara Falls City Court Judge Mark Violante for failure to appear in court on Feb. 6, 2006, on code violation charges related to Niagara One. Parlato said a State Parks Police officer identified him inside his property on May 3 of that year and then called for Niagara Falls police to come make the arrest.

Parlato said he spent about 90 minutes detained in a holding cell at the Niagara Falls police station.

Two months later, he filed court documents with both the state and city alleging he was improperly arrested because he was never notified of the February court date. A notice of claim and notice of intent were filed, but Parlato said he decided not to pursue the lawsuit in exchange for a ruling by the state courts system.

In the letter by Colodner, dated June 5, 2008, a review the case included an examination of the court file and communication with court officers and employees and the city corporation counsel who handled the case.

“The investigation has confirmed that there is nothing in the court file that shows that notice of that hearing date was given, formally or informally to either you or your attorney,” Colodner wrote to Parlato. “Based upon these conclusions, it is likely that you were not given notice of the hearing and, if so, your arrest for failure to appear was for a court date of which you were not notified.”

The letter concludes with, “... if you were arrested falsely, as appears likely, then this office proffers its apologies and assurance that this will not happen to you or others in the future.”

Parlato said the apology and assurance that changes will be made in the system to prevent similar warrant arrests brings a satisfactory end to the incident. The letter does not give examples of what changes would be made in the future.

“There’s a civilized way to act and there’s a brutal way to act and a bench warrant is the brutal way,” said Parlato, who credited his attorneys Mike Powers and Paul Grenga.

Grenga said in his 20 years of practicing law, he has never seen a letter of apology like the one Parlato received from the Unified Court System.

“It clears any misperception that Frank had ignored the court system,” Grenga said. “However, I don’t know if there’s ever a recovery from being shackled in front of your family, friends and employees and being hauled off to jail.”

Contact reporter Rick Forgione at 282-2311, ext. 2257.