Two Off-Duty Officers Charged With Gang Assault

NEW YORK

Two off-duty police officers were charged with gang assault after being accused of kicking, punching and pistol-whipping a man whose open car door was blocking their lane of traffic.

Kollen Robinson, 24, and Michelle Anglin, 37, have been stripped of their badges and guns and are being investigated by Internal Affairs, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday.

``If these allegations prove true, it's a horrendous case, a horrendous situation,'' Kelly said.

The officers, who have pleaded not guilty to gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon, were in Robinson's sport utility vehicle when they got stuck in traffic around 5 p.m. Friday. A motorist, Marlon Smith, was blocking their lane with his open car door.

One of the officers yelled at Smith to shut the door; he yelled back an insult, and a profanity-laced argument erupted.

According to a criminal complaint, the women got out of their SUV and walked over to Smith's car and he tried to slam the door but Anglin sprayed him in the face with Mace.

Then Smith got out of the car and tried to grab Anglin, according to the complaint, and Robinson started punching him, saying, ``Do you know who you are f---ing with? We are the police.''

Robinson is accused of smacking Smith with a baton, and Anglin is accused of pistol-whipping him with her gun. The motorist also had a gun pointed in his face, the complaint said. The officers eventually left the scene, but a witness got the license plate number for the SUV, which was tracked to Robinson, police said.

Attorneys for the two women had no comment.

Robinson has been on the force since 2006, Anglin since 2005. Robinson told internal affairs officials that she was at the scene with Anglin, according to the complaint.

The motorist was taken to a hospital, where he received 25 staples to his scalp to close three cuts. He also was suffering from blurry vision and bruises on his face.

Last month, an amateur video caught an officer body-checking a man off a bicycle and onto the street during a protest in Times Square. Other tapes of officers hitting men with batons recently have surfaced. Those officers were placed on modified duty but not charged criminally, and an internal investigation is under way.

In Yonkers on Tuesday, a policeman who body-slammed an unarmed woman onto a tile floor, breaking her jaw, was indicted on a civil rights charge.