NYPD Officers Accused of False Arrest

NEW YORK


A team of New York Police Department narcotics officers is under investigation for falsely arresting two brothers and two other men in January, claiming they were selling drugs in an Elmhurst club called Delicioso.

New surveillance video obtained last week by defense attorneys does not show any evidence the men sold cocaine or any other drugs to undercover police in the club, authorities said.

The brothers and other two men arrested were charged in January with selling two bags of cocaine worth $100, according to The Washington Post.

On Thursday, those charges were dropped when surveillance video showed that the undercover police officers had never been in contact with the men they arrested, the paper reported.

"How lucky these tapes existed," Rochelle Berliner, who represented brothers Maximo and Jose Colon, told the Post. "Three cops' words against theirs? Who is the jury going to believe?"

But the false charges came at a cost. Jose Colon lost his grocery store business after the arrests, and he was furious with police because of it.

"I just don't know why they would do this to us," he told the Post. "They know who deals drugs on the street, and they just made up everything."

Authorities at the district attorney's office and with the NYPD confirmed to the Post that an investigation into the officers involved in the false drug bust was under way, and according to the paper, at least six police officers have been questioned in connection with the incident in the last few days.

Two of the undercover officers involved in the bust were placed on modified assignment on Tuesday, according to the Post. The third officer left the NYPD and is now working for Nassau County police, the paper reported.