"Suddenly this officer was at my window screaming at me," Brown recalled. "The next thing I know, a lot of cop cars, fire trucks and ambulances were all around me."
Within minutes he saw Parente walking around with a neck brace on. Soon a different officer asked him what happened.
PHOTO BY TED SOQUI
Skechers writer Brian Hitchcock: Officer Parente "finally targeted the wrong guy."
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A few minutes later that cop said he would not be getting a citation but had to go to the DMV to give his side of the story because "it conflicts with what the officer said."
Brown gave a deposition at the DMV that was recorded on video. "They told me it didn't agree with what the officer said, so I had to take a driver's test, which I passed."
A few months later, he got a call from his insurance company saying Parente had filed a claim against him. "They said this officer was claiming a loss of work because I had intentionally backed up into him," Brown recalled. "I said that wasn't true, that he hit me, and I couldn't believe anyone would file for workman's comp after an insignificant bump like that. That was the last I heard." The insurance company paid Parente's claim, but the amount was blacked out in documents obtained by the Weekly.
Beck said Brown's story would have been important to a jury. "It proved that Parente caused another rear-end accident, lied about it, claimed an injury and ended up profiting from it. Now he was trying it again."
But there was one critical difference between Brown and Hitchcock.
"My insurance company rejected Parente's claim," Hitchcock said. "I told them I was prepared to go to court to prove that I was telling the truth, so they didn't pay him. He finally targeted the wrong guy."
Reach the writer at paulteetor@verizon.net.