An off-duty NYPD officer is the second officer in less than a week to get in trouble for allegedly firing his weapon in Westchester.
New Rochelle police say Officer Jamarie Flowers, 25, was involved in an argument in front of the Carrington Arms apartment complex at 33 Lincoln Ave. just after 1 a.m. Investigators say Flowers fired several rounds from his handgun into the air during the argument.
New Rochelle Police Capt. Joseph Schaller says Flowers used a semi-automatic personal handgun that was not his service weapon.
"As the dispute concluded, he pulled out a gun and let several rounds go into the air," says Schaller.
Flowers was arrested in his apartment at the complex and was charged with reckless endangerment.
No one was injured and there was no property damage.
Flowers was released on $10,000 bail. He has also been suspended from the NYPD without pay.
He is due back in court June 2.
Last Tuesday, Officer Brendan Cronin, 27, allegedly fired shots from his parked car and hit a man at a stoplight with six bullets.
The victim is recovering and Cronin was charged with felony assault.
Showing posts with label NYPD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NYPD. Show all posts
Monday, May 05, 2014
Former Officer Michael Setiawan Arrested for Vandalism
A former New York City police officer was arrested over the weekend for allegedly spray-painting anti-Semitic messages on buildings and cars in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn.
A school building and 20 private homes and vehicles were splattered with red paint and messages of hate Saturday in what the Jewish Forward dubbed a “vandalism spree.”
Michael Setiawan, 36, a former police officer for New York City’s 69th precinct, was reportedly arrested Sunday and accused of posting the graffiti.
An individual alleged to be Setiawan was caught on a surveillance camera painting the door of the Bnos Zion Bobov School. See footage below:
http://youtu.be/Pk4KbugH410
The messages left on the buildings reportedly included swastikas and terms including “F*** you Jew” and “Jew cheap s***.”
The community was rattled over the incident, with locals and officials decrying the acts.
“Hate is not a Brooklyn value, and I repudiate any lowlife individual who would spread their prejudiced invective,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said.
Setiawan, who was reportedly sent for a mental evaluation following his arrest, is being charged with hate crimes, including 19 counts of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment, according to the New York Daily News.
A young boy reported the suspect after he said he saw him spray-painting a car and took down his license plate as he drove away.
Setiawan’s father, Thomas, told media that his son suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts after leaving the NYPD in 2007, though he said the family is unsure why he left the force
A school building and 20 private homes and vehicles were splattered with red paint and messages of hate Saturday in what the Jewish Forward dubbed a “vandalism spree.”
Michael Setiawan, 36, a former police officer for New York City’s 69th precinct, was reportedly arrested Sunday and accused of posting the graffiti.
An individual alleged to be Setiawan was caught on a surveillance camera painting the door of the Bnos Zion Bobov School. See footage below:
http://youtu.be/Pk4KbugH410
The messages left on the buildings reportedly included swastikas and terms including “F*** you Jew” and “Jew cheap s***.”
The community was rattled over the incident, with locals and officials decrying the acts.
“Hate is not a Brooklyn value, and I repudiate any lowlife individual who would spread their prejudiced invective,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said.
Setiawan, who was reportedly sent for a mental evaluation following his arrest, is being charged with hate crimes, including 19 counts of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment, according to the New York Daily News.
A young boy reported the suspect after he said he saw him spray-painting a car and took down his license plate as he drove away.
Setiawan’s father, Thomas, told media that his son suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts after leaving the NYPD in 2007, though he said the family is unsure why he left the force
Sunday, May 04, 2014
Officer Jamarie Flowers Arrested for Firing Gun into the Air
An off-duty NYPD cop was arrested early Saturday after he allegedly fired several shots into the air in New Rochelle.
Police said Jamarie Flowers, 25, fired his gun after getting into a verbal dispute outside the Carrington Arms apartment building on Lincoln Avenue.
No one was injured, but Flowers was charged with first degree reckless endangerment.
This is just the latest NYPD officer to be arrested for acting recklessly.
Earlier in the week officer Brendan Cronin was arrested, accused of shooting a man six times in Pelham.
He allegedly fired more than a dozen bullets.
Cronin reportedly was at an NYPD shooting range earlier that day before going to a bar.
He refused to take a breathalyzer test.
In late April, an NYPD detective accidentally shot his partner in the wrist.
He was charged with driving while intoxicated.
Police said Jamarie Flowers, 25, fired his gun after getting into a verbal dispute outside the Carrington Arms apartment building on Lincoln Avenue.
No one was injured, but Flowers was charged with first degree reckless endangerment.
This is just the latest NYPD officer to be arrested for acting recklessly.
Earlier in the week officer Brendan Cronin was arrested, accused of shooting a man six times in Pelham.
He allegedly fired more than a dozen bullets.
Cronin reportedly was at an NYPD shooting range earlier that day before going to a bar.
He refused to take a breathalyzer test.
In late April, an NYPD detective accidentally shot his partner in the wrist.
He was charged with driving while intoxicated.
Thursday, May 01, 2014
Officer Brendan Cronin Arrested for Shooting
An NYPD officer who works in the Bronx has found himself on the other side of the law for his alleged role in a Westchester County shooting.
According to authorities, Officer Brendan Cronin fired his gun at least 13 times at a car sitting at a stoplight in Pelham Bay Tuesday night.
They say a 47-year-old man was wounded, but is in stable condition at the hospital.
Cronin, a five-year NYPD veteran, is being charged with first-degree assault. He has been suspended without pay.
It remains unclear what led to the shooting.
According to authorities, Officer Brendan Cronin fired his gun at least 13 times at a car sitting at a stoplight in Pelham Bay Tuesday night.
They say a 47-year-old man was wounded, but is in stable condition at the hospital.
Cronin, a five-year NYPD veteran, is being charged with first-degree assault. He has been suspended without pay.
It remains unclear what led to the shooting.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Officer Yong Wu Charged with Possession of Child Porn
Yong Wu, 34,
downloaded to his computer at his home in Ozone Park, Queens, videos of
underage girls performing sex acts, and he also shared the videos with
others, police said Tuesday.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Ex-Officer Kevin Canty Fatally Shoots Wife
News of the horror came from the mouths of mere babes.“Daddy shot mommy!” two hysterical children — a 4-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy — screamed inside a Queens bodega. “Daddy shot mommy!”
Around the corner from the Casablanca deli on Saturday, cops were combing a bloody crime scene. An unhinged former cop shot and killed his wife in front of their two young kids in Ozone Park just before 11 a.m., police sources said.
Cops found ex-cop Kevin Canty, 43, stumbling around drunk near the corner of 97th and Centreville Sts. He was arrested without further violence.
Paramedics, meanwhile, were feverishly working on 40-year-old Jessica Mera. They took the mom from the couple’s home on 104th St., past the front door adorned with an Easter bunny decoration and into a waiting ambulance. Mera, blasted in the chest, could not be saved. She died at Jamaica Hospital.
As cops carted the dreadlocked gunman to the 102nd Precinct stationhouse, a neighbor took the traumatized children to the nearby deli.
"The boy told me personally: 'My dad shot my mom and there's blood all over,’” said the neighbor who asked to remain anonymous.
“My wife heard gunshots and the kids were running out on the street,” he added. “They were banging on car doors as cars were passing by. They were trying to get help, someone to listen to them.”
Before Canty was arrested, cops in body armor and carrying bullet-proof shields descended on the home. NYPD helicopters hovered overhead. A 911 caller told police that a man fitting Canty’s description was trying to open the doors of unoccupied cars a mile and a half away from the crime scene, authorities said.
Canty appeared delirious while handcuffed and repeatedly banged his head against the inside of a squad car window.
About 10 stunned friends and family of Mera’s had little to say as they lingered at the entrance of the emergency room.
“They are going through a really tough time right now,” said one man who only identified himself as Mera’s friend.
“You have no idea what this family has been through — this is only the tip of the iceberg.”
Several neighbors said the couple had four children, though it was unclear if any of them were from previous relationships.
The callous crime amounted to a stunning downfall for Canty, sources said. In July 2012 the former transit cop was hailed as a hero for helping save the life of a man who suffered a heart attack in the Union Square subway station.
Police sources said he retired last year due to a disability.
The nature of the disability was unclear.
Canty and his wife had a tumultuous relationship, several neighbors said.
“They were always fighting. They’d fight outside, they would fight everywhere,” said Joanne Bagley, 52. “They were not a happy couple. I guess it was inevitable.”
Shanique Varlack, 22, described Canty as a drunken terror who often threatened his wife.
“He told more than one person - 'I'm gonna kill this b---h one day,’” said Varlack.
“Everybody is just so distraught. He's a cop. He's supposed to protect us. He took an oath and now? He's a murderer. She did not deserve to die.”
The shaken deli worker who consoled the distraught kids said Canty and Mera were regulars.
“I’d see him everyday,” deliman Fez Atlas said. “I knew what he’d want when he came in. He would come in, get a pack of Newports.
“His wife would come in, in the morning with the kids,” he added. “She’d buy the girl a bag of potato chips and the boy pistachios. Then this happened.”
A man in Laurelton, Queens, who only identified himself as Canty’s uncle-in-law said of the ex-cop, “He’s a nice guy. This is the first I’m hearing about this.”
But other neighbors said Canty had a menacing presence.
“He’s kind of a scary guy, kind of intimidating. You got to talk to him for him to talk to you,” said Danny Ali, 30.
“He told me he was a detective. About a year ago, I saw he had a broken hand. He said he broke it in a fight. He wouldn’t say more about it.”
Chris Ris said he often saw Canty around Ozone Park wearing construction boots and dusty pants, apparently on the way home from a job in construction. On nice days, Canty’s wife sat on the stoop with her children, Ris said. “To me he seemed like a nice guy,” said Ris, a music producer. “I’d never dream he’d kill his wife.”
News of the horror came from the mouths of mere babes.
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Officer Shieed Haniff Arrested for DWI
A city cop was arrested for driving drunk, smashing into cars and speeding through a police stop as fellow officers gave chase, authorities said Monday.
The alleged intoxicated ride by Shieed Haniff, 30, ended Sunday minutes before midnight when he was stopped in East New York, Brooklyn.
Police saw Haniff drive erratically and hit a car, before making a u-turn and crashing into another car, causing injuries for occupants in both vehicles, court papers alleged.
The seven-year NYPD veteran then drove off and plowed through a traffic stop with “police jumping out of the way,” the document said.
Cops charged Haniff with leaving the scene of an accident, DWI, reckless driving and refusing to take a breath test. He was released without bail, but his license was revoked.
The alleged intoxicated ride by Shieed Haniff, 30, ended Sunday minutes before midnight when he was stopped in East New York, Brooklyn.
Police saw Haniff drive erratically and hit a car, before making a u-turn and crashing into another car, causing injuries for occupants in both vehicles, court papers alleged.
The seven-year NYPD veteran then drove off and plowed through a traffic stop with “police jumping out of the way,” the document said.
Cops charged Haniff with leaving the scene of an accident, DWI, reckless driving and refusing to take a breath test. He was released without bail, but his license was revoked.
Friday, April 04, 2014
Dectective Hassan Hamdy Charged in 2012 Fatal Shooting
Police in New York City say officers involved in a fatal 2012 shooting of an unarmed National Guardsman should face departmental charges.
NYPD Deputy Chief Kim Royster says in a statement Friday the charges were determined based on an internal review of the Oct. 4 shooting of Noel Polanco during a Queens traffic stop.
Royster says a disciplinary process will now commence. She says regardless of the department's findings, the police commissioner will ultimately decide their penalties.
Polanco was shot by Detective Hassan Hamdy through an open passenger window after he believed Polanco was reaching under the seat.
A grand jury cleared Hamdy of criminal wrongdoing and federal prosecutors said Hamdy didn't intentionally violate Polanco's civil rights. The city has agreed to a $2.5 million settlement with Polanco's family.
NYPD Deputy Chief Kim Royster says in a statement Friday the charges were determined based on an internal review of the Oct. 4 shooting of Noel Polanco during a Queens traffic stop.
Royster says a disciplinary process will now commence. She says regardless of the department's findings, the police commissioner will ultimately decide their penalties.
Polanco was shot by Detective Hassan Hamdy through an open passenger window after he believed Polanco was reaching under the seat.
A grand jury cleared Hamdy of criminal wrongdoing and federal prosecutors said Hamdy didn't intentionally violate Polanco's civil rights. The city has agreed to a $2.5 million settlement with Polanco's family.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Officer Liam Donahue Arrested for DWI
A 22-year-old off-duty police officer was arrested early Saturday on charges of driving while intoxicated, according to police.
Liam Donahue was arrested just after 6 a.m. in Queens, when he crashed his vehicle into an empty parked car around the intersection of 40th Avenue and 218th Street, police said.
Donahue refused to take a breathalyzer test offered to him by members of the NYPD who questioned him at the scene, the NY Daily News reported.
He was taken to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset for further evaluation, according to the NYPD.
Donahue had joined the force in July 2013, and had been working as part of the Patrol Borough Manhattan North since, the paper wrote.
Liam Donahue was arrested just after 6 a.m. in Queens, when he crashed his vehicle into an empty parked car around the intersection of 40th Avenue and 218th Street, police said.
Donahue refused to take a breathalyzer test offered to him by members of the NYPD who questioned him at the scene, the NY Daily News reported.
He was taken to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset for further evaluation, according to the NYPD.
Donahue had joined the force in July 2013, and had been working as part of the Patrol Borough Manhattan North since, the paper wrote.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Officer Tyisha Williams Arrested for Assault
An NYPD officer was arrested on assault charges Thursday in the Bronx.
Officer Tyisha Williams, 31, was arrested Thursday in the 52nd Precinct, which includes the Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge, Norwood, and University Heights sections of the Bronx.
She was charged with assault, police said.
Police did not immediately provide further details on the allegations.
Officer Tyisha Williams, 31, was arrested Thursday in the 52nd Precinct, which includes the Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge, Norwood, and University Heights sections of the Bronx.
She was charged with assault, police said.
Police did not immediately provide further details on the allegations.
Sunday, March 09, 2014
Corrections Officer Patrick Brown Arrested for Drunk Driving
A city Department of Correction officer was busted on charges of drunk driving early Monday morning, police said.
Cops pulled Patrick Brown, 33, over for a broken tail light at 3:44 a.m. near the intersection of Francis Lewis Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway and found he had been drinking, the NYPD said.
He had an alcohol level of .105 percent in his blood when he blew into a Breathalyzer, according to the NYPD, which is above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
Brown had not been charged before with a DWI, police said.
Cops pulled Patrick Brown, 33, over for a broken tail light at 3:44 a.m. near the intersection of Francis Lewis Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway and found he had been drinking, the NYPD said.
He had an alcohol level of .105 percent in his blood when he blew into a Breathalyzer, according to the NYPD, which is above the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
Brown had not been charged before with a DWI, police said.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Three Officers Under Investigation in Bikers' Clash with SUV Driver
Three bikers have been indicted in connection with a well-publicized
clash with a New York SUV driver, the Manhattan District Attorney's
office said Friday.
Craig Wright, 29, and
Reginald Chance, 37, were indicted Friday, according to the district
attorney's office. A third man, Robert Sims, 35, was indicted on
Thursday, it said.
Authorities say Alexander
Lien was chased by bikers after he initially bumped one during a biker
rally on September 29. When his SUV was surrounded by several bikers,
Lien called 9-1-1, told police he feared for his life and drove off,
running over bikers and critically injuring one.
Lien's wife and 2-year-old daughter were in the vehicle with him. Lien has not been charged.
The chase that followed
ended in traffic. Police say Lien's windows were smashed; he was dragged
out of the SUV and beaten. He was treated and released from a hospital.
Officials did not detail
the formal charges against the three men. In New York, charges in an
indictment are not announced until defendants have been arraigned and
can enter a plea.
Chance was accused of
using his helmet to smash the SUV window, according to police. The
lawyer for Chance concedes his client "overreacted," but claims he did
not take part in beating the driver.
Authorities arrested Wright for allegedly hitting the SUV driver through the window of his vehicle.
Sims was accused of stomping on the driver after he was pulled from his SUV, authorities said.
Wright, Chance and Sims are scheduled to be arraigned on October 30, according to the district attorney's office.
At least seven people have been arrested, including the three who were indicted.
Authorities, who have appealed for the public's help in identifying people in photos, haven't ruled out more arrests or charges.
Meanwhile, a New York
Police officer who works in Internal Affairs joins the ranks of at least
two others with the NYPD who waited several days to tell their
superiors they were at the rally where the SUV driver was beaten and
kicked, according to the lawyer for the officer.
"He did what he had to do (by coming forward)," the officer's attorney, Pat Bonanno, told CNN.
A law enforcement
source, with knowledge of the case, told CNN the Internal Affairs
officer didn't report he was at the rally for at least a week.
CNN is withholding the
officer's name, who worked for Internal Affairs for five years, because
he has not been charged with any wrongdoing at this time. The story was
first reported by DNAInfo.com, a site specializing in crime news.
Bonanno says the officer
belongs to a motorcycle club and was riding with hundreds of bikers who
participated in the September 29th rally, but insists he didn't witness
the assault on Lien.
"He wasn't aware of
anything of the nature posted on YouTube and he doesn't have any
firsthand knowledge of what was going on," Bonanno said.
"Once all the videos are
reviewed and witnesses interviewed, we'll find that my client has no
culpability for anything that happened that day."
Bonanno offered no
explanation as to why the officer waited so long to tell his superiors
he was there. "That will be addressed in an appropriate time and
manner," he said.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, tells CNN authorities are investigating his account.
Law enforcement sources have told CNN there were no on-duty police officers riding with the bikers in an undercover capacity.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner John McCarthy declined comment as did the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
At least two other officers are under investigation.
One of them is Detective
Wojciech Braszczok, who faces three felony counts including gang
assault. Prosecutors say the off-duty cop is on video allegedly using
his fist to bash in the rear window of Lien's SUV and kick it.
Braszczok's lawyer has denied his client did anything wrong and says video will exonerate him.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Officer Peter Ciollo Arrested for Attempted Rape
An off-duty New York City police officer has been arrested and charged with the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl.
Officer Peter Ciollo, 29, is accused of having sex with the teen relative at his Staten Island house on the Fourth of July.
The victim is reportedly his sister in law's sister or other immediate relative on his wife's side of the family.
Authorities say Ciollo gave the girl alcohol to drink, then let her drive his car around the neighborhood.
Then they returned to his home, where he allegedly showed her computer porn before they started touching each other in his bed.
The girl says she doesn't remember what happened next, but she told police that when she woke up, she was in the bed and Ciollo's wife had walked in on them.
A wedding notice in the Staten Island Advance says he was married in 2009.
Ciollo is charged with attempted rape, endangering the welfare of a child, sexual abuse and unlawfully dealing with a child-alcohol. He has been an officer since 2006, assigned to the 120th Precinct.
He has been suspended without pay.
Officer Peter Ciollo, 29, is accused of having sex with the teen relative at his Staten Island house on the Fourth of July.
The victim is reportedly his sister in law's sister or other immediate relative on his wife's side of the family.
Authorities say Ciollo gave the girl alcohol to drink, then let her drive his car around the neighborhood.
Then they returned to his home, where he allegedly showed her computer porn before they started touching each other in his bed.
The girl says she doesn't remember what happened next, but she told police that when she woke up, she was in the bed and Ciollo's wife had walked in on them.
A wedding notice in the Staten Island Advance says he was married in 2009.
Ciollo is charged with attempted rape, endangering the welfare of a child, sexual abuse and unlawfully dealing with a child-alcohol. He has been an officer since 2006, assigned to the 120th Precinct.
He has been suspended without pay.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Ex NYPD officer Arrested for Conspiring to Cook and Eat Women
Two more people are under arrest in connection
with the so-called "Cannibal Cop", Gilberto Valle, the ex-NYPD officer
convicted of conspiring to cook and eat women.
60-year old Christopher Asch was arrested at his Greenwich Village home, and was charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He was initially removed from his job as a librarian at Stuyvesant High School for improperly touching male students.
Asch was charged criminally, but the case was subsequently dismissed and sealed.
A second person, Richard Meltz, was arrested Sunday in Rockaway, New Jersey. He is chief of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Police Service, based in Bedford, Massachusetts, and a former Sussex County, New Jersey law enforcement officer.
Valle was convicted last month of conspiring to kidnap women, then cook, kill and eat them. He faces life in prison when he is sentenced June 19 - his first wedding anniversary.
Authorities say Asch is quoted in the criminal complaint discussing kidnapping, killing and eating women and children, at one point calling it an "exciting proposition."
60-year old Christopher Asch was arrested at his Greenwich Village home, and was charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He was initially removed from his job as a librarian at Stuyvesant High School for improperly touching male students.
Asch was charged criminally, but the case was subsequently dismissed and sealed.
A second person, Richard Meltz, was arrested Sunday in Rockaway, New Jersey. He is chief of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Police Service, based in Bedford, Massachusetts, and a former Sussex County, New Jersey law enforcement officer.
Valle was convicted last month of conspiring to kidnap women, then cook, kill and eat them. He faces life in prison when he is sentenced June 19 - his first wedding anniversary.
Authorities say Asch is quoted in the criminal complaint discussing kidnapping, killing and eating women and children, at one point calling it an "exciting proposition."
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sergeant Alberto Randazzo Arrested for Child Porn
A New York City police sergeant was arraigned on Tuesday on numerous child pornography charges, after internal affairs investigators found several explicit images and videos on his laptop computer.
In several recordings found on the computer, the sergeant, Alberto Randazzo, is heard providing “verbal instructions during a cyber video chat session” to an unidentified woman lying in bed with an infant, who appears to be 1 to 2 years old, and directing the woman to “perform certain sex acts on the infant,” the police said.
Also uncovered were two videos involving a man engaged in sex acts with a girl, about 8 to 10 years old, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Queens district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors charged Sergeant Randazzo, 36, with 11 counts of use of a child in a sexual performance, 23 counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and 23 counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child, the complaint states. He has been suspended from the force.
Sergeant Randazzo’s lawyer, Anthony DiFiore, did not return a phone call on Tuesday evening.
In several recordings found on the computer, the sergeant, Alberto Randazzo, is heard providing “verbal instructions during a cyber video chat session” to an unidentified woman lying in bed with an infant, who appears to be 1 to 2 years old, and directing the woman to “perform certain sex acts on the infant,” the police said.
Also uncovered were two videos involving a man engaged in sex acts with a girl, about 8 to 10 years old, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Queens district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors charged Sergeant Randazzo, 36, with 11 counts of use of a child in a sexual performance, 23 counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and 23 counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child, the complaint states. He has been suspended from the force.
Sergeant Randazzo’s lawyer, Anthony DiFiore, did not return a phone call on Tuesday evening.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Corruption case shines light on NYPD
NYPD badges out, Kelvin Jones and the other armed men turned up out of nowhere at a New Jersey warehouse and began barking orders.
Jones told startled workers that the New York Police Department had sent the team there to inspect for counterfeit goods - even though the wholesale dealer of Prada, Versace and other fragrances was legitimate.
The men herded about a dozen employees into a tiny back office and tied them up. By then, it was obvious something was amiss.
"We were kind of shocked," one worker recalled. "We were like, why is the NYPD coming in here like this?"
Another blurted: "You're not cops."
But Jones was indeed an NYPD officer. In fact, he had held an elite undercover position. Two with him were also part of the NYPD. A third was a former officer. But these were hardly "New York's Finest."
What they'd set up to look like a police raid was instead a brazen, $1 million robbery.
Eventually, the 30-year-old Jones would face trial. And his case, though largely overlooked, isn't isolated. In the past two years, prosecutors have accused officers of planting evidence in drug investigations, of running illegal guns, of robbing drug dealers, of routinely fixing traffic tickets as favors.
Still, Jones stands out because of his background as an undercover operative for the NYPD's Intelligence Division. The department credits the unit with thwarting numerous terror and other threats against New Yorkers.
Recent stories by The Associated Press have detailed how the unit also sought to infiltrate and monitor mosques, Muslim student organizations and left-wing political organizations - even beyond city limits - using methods that critics say infringe on civil rights, though the department denies it.
How Jones became an undercover and the exact nature of his assignment weren't made public at his trial in Newark in 2010, and police officials won't discuss it. But court documents offer hints: They show the NYPD authorized the Caribbean-born Jones to use the aliases Michael Kingston and Kelvin Johns. And in a handwritten journal, he made cryptic references to assignments in cities far from New York. That was before he was demoted to ordinary patrol - a transfer that still gave him access to an internal police database he used to help hatch the warehouse holdup.
Jones "abused his authority for his own personal gain," Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Gramiccioni told jurors. "Instead of protecting and serving the citizens, he decided to rob them and hold them hostage." While not commenting directly on Jones, the NYPD insists it carefully vets candidates for undercover work, especially those assigned to Intelligence Division.
Some are chosen because they speak Arabic or other languages needed to make their undercover roles convincing, or because they've demonstrated a mental toughness needed to withstand the rigors of leading a double life. Jones' demeanor would have made him a good choice, said his attorney, Michael Orozco. "For that kind of work," Orozco said, "you'd obviously want to have someone who's cool, calm and collected - and that's him."
But a rambling journal entry addressing his girlfriend reveals that the duality was difficult for Jones. "I never told you I was cop," he wrote, "because I was in too DEEP." ___ Back in 2003, Kelvin Jones was listed in the media guide for the Southeast Missouri Redhawks as a 6-foot, 210-pound linebacker, a "hard hitter" with "a good nose for the football."
Originally from the island of Grenada, Jones had grown up in Brooklyn, the son of a contractor and a dietitian. In his last season at the school in Cape Girardeau, Mo., the Redhawks finished with a forgettable 5-7 record. But Jones stuck to his studies and graduated with a degree in criminal justice.
He played professionally in the now-defunct National Indoor Football League, leading the Fayetteville Guard in tackles and interceptions in 2006, according to a league blog, but he quit the team before a playoff game. The reason? To enter the police academy in New York City.
On his NYPD application, Jones listed his criminal justice degree and his gridiron work. And to a question about distinguishing markings on his body, he responded, "I got a tattoo on the right side of my back ... Lord's Prayer on a scroll." The application offers nothing especially remarkable, nothing to explain Jones' next move. Orozco believes Jones went to work for the Intelligence Division "right out the academy."
Jones declined to be interviewed. His family declined comment as well. NYPD supervisors have at times plucked recruits out of the police academy and given them special training to become undercover investigators. But police officials, citing privacy rules, declined to discuss his employment history.
In court documents, the NYPD confirmed only that Jones had been an Intelligence Division undercover who used aliases. His defense claimed that he also had permission to get a New Jersey driver's license using a fake name.
Two former NYPD officials familiar with Jones told The Associated Press that one of his assignments was to monitor the Nation of Islam - part of the Intelligence Division's effort to monitor groups considered to have extreme political agendas. Since the ex-officials weren't authorized to speak about the case, both spoke only on condition of anonymity. Jones' journal offered murky clues.
He described having "orders from my captain not to let anyone know I was in Las Vegas" - but no clue what for. Another time, he was on the road because "we got a lead from an informant that someone we were investigating would be in the LA area."
Still another trip took him to Miami. At a nightclub there, he wrote, he introduced his girlfriend to a "friend" - actually another undercover on assignment with him. "I didn't pay for my flight to Miami," he said. "It was paid for by the unit."
The girlfriend, he wrote knew him only as Kelvin Johns - not Jones - and the deceit was not his only regret. He worried that someday he was "going to get shot." Still, he reasoned, "This NYPD career is just a stepping stone for me." He saw it leading to future job in federal law enforcement.
Though Jones told his lawyer that his supervisors "loved him," one of the former police officials who spoke to the AP said Jones proved unreliable and difficult to supervise. And at some point, the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau began investigating allegations he gave protection to drug dealers in exchange for cash or narcotics, court records say. Internal investigators noted his lifestyle, flashy for someone on an officer's salary.
Witnesses described how he drove a BMW sedan, wore expensive clothes, owned a condo and, according to his girlfriend, Sahar Saidi, bankrolled her Spanish studies in South America. "This is the kind of person I know Kelvin to be - thoughtful, considerate and generous," she wrote in a letter of support to the court.
The NYPD revealed a different view when it reassigned him from Intelligence to regular duty. But if the idea was to neutralize him, it didn't work.
In his new assignment, Jones met officers already making a mockery of the department's "New York's Finest" moniker. He learned that two patrolmen were routinely robbing prostitutes and brothels, according to trial testimony.
Jones sought out one, Brian Checo, to get in on the action. "I told him it's not worth it because it's not a lot of money," recalled Checo, who pleaded guilty and agreed to become a government witness. "And that's when he said he is going to have something for us and he is going to let us know."
About two months later, Jones let Checo know he wanted help robbing a warehouse.
This one was in Brooklyn, and it stored counterfeit clothing. Checo and two others - patrolman Richard LeBlanca and ex-officer Orlando Garcia - signed on. Jones "had been sitting on a spot" - police slang for reconnaissance - "for a while and that if I was interested ...he would be paying us $4,000 each," Garcia testified.
The plan called for them to wear NYPD raid jackets, bulletproof vests and badges. "We were going to try to make it seem like an official NYPD raid. ... Just make it look like, you know, a sting," Garcia said. Converging on the Brooklyn warehouse, the officers used a broom to knock out a security camera. Jones shouted out the names of the employees before the men handcuffed them and trucks began showing up to haul merchandise away. He told his crew the goods would be sold to a fence.
Word later came that the same fence had made Jones an offer he couldn't refuse, this time regarding a perfume warehouse in Carlstadt, N.J.: If he and his cohorts could "get four trucks of perfumes, he will give them $500,000." Jones had learned the other side of the law from his police work. He was always careful to use prepaid cell phones. "You gotta change it up," he told Checa. Also, Jones' black BMW had South Carolina plates.
Another tactic came straight out of the surveillance playbook: He had gone to the New Jersey warehouse before that heist to photograph the cars outside. Plugging license plate numbers into NYPD computers, he called up the vehicle registrations and made printouts of names and other information on employees.
On the day of the robbery in 2010, Jones, using the name Mike Smith, went with the others to rent two 24-foot trucks. LeBlanca maxed out his debit card renting one, and Garcia had to use his card, too. Both, incredibly, used their real names - a mistake that would come back to haunt them. It was still daylight when they arrived at the In Style, USA warehouse. Jones led the fake raid wearing a hat and a hoodie that obscured his face.
A police badge hung from his thick neck. "We have papers, documentation," Jones told them, reading names from his printouts. He told employees they were suspected of selling knockoff merchandise, and accused their boss of hiring undocumented workers and not paying taxes.
The robber-cops used plastic ties to bind the employees. "We were tied up for three hours," one said later. "It was really bad for everyone." But fear did not silence everyone. The warehouse owner spoke out at one point, saying, according to police testimony: "You're not cops." The helpless hostages heard the beeping noise of trucks backing up.
Day laborers hired by the holdup crew did the loading. There were six trucks in all. Four carrying hundreds of boxes of perfume and other merchandise valued at $1 million got away, but the two 24-foot trucks rented earlier that day were left behind after someone called the police.
Afterward, panic set in. Jones advised his cohorts to report that cards used at the truck rental office had been stolen. But when it dawned on Checo that Jones had made himself a "ghost" - with the prepaid phones, the alias, the out-of-state plates - and he lashed out. "If I get arrested and lose my job, I'm going to rat you out," he recalled telling Jones.
Tension only grew when Jones paid the men $2,000 apiece, half of what they were promised. "They are coming," Checo told Jones, referring to police investigators. And he was right. Police and federal agents arrested the officers.
The owner of the truck rental agency picked Jones out of a photo array. Checo, as promised, flipped, and the other two robbers also cooperated. Jones was convicted at a federal trial in Newark in December 2010.
At sentencing, he claimed, "I was framed," but the judge was unmoved.
The former NYPD undercover is serving a 16-year sentence in an Ohio prison.
Jones told startled workers that the New York Police Department had sent the team there to inspect for counterfeit goods - even though the wholesale dealer of Prada, Versace and other fragrances was legitimate.
The men herded about a dozen employees into a tiny back office and tied them up. By then, it was obvious something was amiss.
"We were kind of shocked," one worker recalled. "We were like, why is the NYPD coming in here like this?"
Another blurted: "You're not cops."
But Jones was indeed an NYPD officer. In fact, he had held an elite undercover position. Two with him were also part of the NYPD. A third was a former officer. But these were hardly "New York's Finest."
What they'd set up to look like a police raid was instead a brazen, $1 million robbery.
Eventually, the 30-year-old Jones would face trial. And his case, though largely overlooked, isn't isolated. In the past two years, prosecutors have accused officers of planting evidence in drug investigations, of running illegal guns, of robbing drug dealers, of routinely fixing traffic tickets as favors.
Still, Jones stands out because of his background as an undercover operative for the NYPD's Intelligence Division. The department credits the unit with thwarting numerous terror and other threats against New Yorkers.
Recent stories by The Associated Press have detailed how the unit also sought to infiltrate and monitor mosques, Muslim student organizations and left-wing political organizations - even beyond city limits - using methods that critics say infringe on civil rights, though the department denies it.
How Jones became an undercover and the exact nature of his assignment weren't made public at his trial in Newark in 2010, and police officials won't discuss it. But court documents offer hints: They show the NYPD authorized the Caribbean-born Jones to use the aliases Michael Kingston and Kelvin Johns. And in a handwritten journal, he made cryptic references to assignments in cities far from New York. That was before he was demoted to ordinary patrol - a transfer that still gave him access to an internal police database he used to help hatch the warehouse holdup.
Jones "abused his authority for his own personal gain," Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Gramiccioni told jurors. "Instead of protecting and serving the citizens, he decided to rob them and hold them hostage." While not commenting directly on Jones, the NYPD insists it carefully vets candidates for undercover work, especially those assigned to Intelligence Division.
Some are chosen because they speak Arabic or other languages needed to make their undercover roles convincing, or because they've demonstrated a mental toughness needed to withstand the rigors of leading a double life. Jones' demeanor would have made him a good choice, said his attorney, Michael Orozco. "For that kind of work," Orozco said, "you'd obviously want to have someone who's cool, calm and collected - and that's him."
But a rambling journal entry addressing his girlfriend reveals that the duality was difficult for Jones. "I never told you I was cop," he wrote, "because I was in too DEEP." ___ Back in 2003, Kelvin Jones was listed in the media guide for the Southeast Missouri Redhawks as a 6-foot, 210-pound linebacker, a "hard hitter" with "a good nose for the football."
Originally from the island of Grenada, Jones had grown up in Brooklyn, the son of a contractor and a dietitian. In his last season at the school in Cape Girardeau, Mo., the Redhawks finished with a forgettable 5-7 record. But Jones stuck to his studies and graduated with a degree in criminal justice.
He played professionally in the now-defunct National Indoor Football League, leading the Fayetteville Guard in tackles and interceptions in 2006, according to a league blog, but he quit the team before a playoff game. The reason? To enter the police academy in New York City.
On his NYPD application, Jones listed his criminal justice degree and his gridiron work. And to a question about distinguishing markings on his body, he responded, "I got a tattoo on the right side of my back ... Lord's Prayer on a scroll." The application offers nothing especially remarkable, nothing to explain Jones' next move. Orozco believes Jones went to work for the Intelligence Division "right out the academy."
Jones declined to be interviewed. His family declined comment as well. NYPD supervisors have at times plucked recruits out of the police academy and given them special training to become undercover investigators. But police officials, citing privacy rules, declined to discuss his employment history.
In court documents, the NYPD confirmed only that Jones had been an Intelligence Division undercover who used aliases. His defense claimed that he also had permission to get a New Jersey driver's license using a fake name.
Two former NYPD officials familiar with Jones told The Associated Press that one of his assignments was to monitor the Nation of Islam - part of the Intelligence Division's effort to monitor groups considered to have extreme political agendas. Since the ex-officials weren't authorized to speak about the case, both spoke only on condition of anonymity. Jones' journal offered murky clues.
He described having "orders from my captain not to let anyone know I was in Las Vegas" - but no clue what for. Another time, he was on the road because "we got a lead from an informant that someone we were investigating would be in the LA area."
Still another trip took him to Miami. At a nightclub there, he wrote, he introduced his girlfriend to a "friend" - actually another undercover on assignment with him. "I didn't pay for my flight to Miami," he said. "It was paid for by the unit."
The girlfriend, he wrote knew him only as Kelvin Johns - not Jones - and the deceit was not his only regret. He worried that someday he was "going to get shot." Still, he reasoned, "This NYPD career is just a stepping stone for me." He saw it leading to future job in federal law enforcement.
Though Jones told his lawyer that his supervisors "loved him," one of the former police officials who spoke to the AP said Jones proved unreliable and difficult to supervise. And at some point, the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau began investigating allegations he gave protection to drug dealers in exchange for cash or narcotics, court records say. Internal investigators noted his lifestyle, flashy for someone on an officer's salary.
Witnesses described how he drove a BMW sedan, wore expensive clothes, owned a condo and, according to his girlfriend, Sahar Saidi, bankrolled her Spanish studies in South America. "This is the kind of person I know Kelvin to be - thoughtful, considerate and generous," she wrote in a letter of support to the court.
The NYPD revealed a different view when it reassigned him from Intelligence to regular duty. But if the idea was to neutralize him, it didn't work.
In his new assignment, Jones met officers already making a mockery of the department's "New York's Finest" moniker. He learned that two patrolmen were routinely robbing prostitutes and brothels, according to trial testimony.
Jones sought out one, Brian Checo, to get in on the action. "I told him it's not worth it because it's not a lot of money," recalled Checo, who pleaded guilty and agreed to become a government witness. "And that's when he said he is going to have something for us and he is going to let us know."
About two months later, Jones let Checo know he wanted help robbing a warehouse.
This one was in Brooklyn, and it stored counterfeit clothing. Checo and two others - patrolman Richard LeBlanca and ex-officer Orlando Garcia - signed on. Jones "had been sitting on a spot" - police slang for reconnaissance - "for a while and that if I was interested ...he would be paying us $4,000 each," Garcia testified.
The plan called for them to wear NYPD raid jackets, bulletproof vests and badges. "We were going to try to make it seem like an official NYPD raid. ... Just make it look like, you know, a sting," Garcia said. Converging on the Brooklyn warehouse, the officers used a broom to knock out a security camera. Jones shouted out the names of the employees before the men handcuffed them and trucks began showing up to haul merchandise away. He told his crew the goods would be sold to a fence.
Word later came that the same fence had made Jones an offer he couldn't refuse, this time regarding a perfume warehouse in Carlstadt, N.J.: If he and his cohorts could "get four trucks of perfumes, he will give them $500,000." Jones had learned the other side of the law from his police work. He was always careful to use prepaid cell phones. "You gotta change it up," he told Checa. Also, Jones' black BMW had South Carolina plates.
Another tactic came straight out of the surveillance playbook: He had gone to the New Jersey warehouse before that heist to photograph the cars outside. Plugging license plate numbers into NYPD computers, he called up the vehicle registrations and made printouts of names and other information on employees.
On the day of the robbery in 2010, Jones, using the name Mike Smith, went with the others to rent two 24-foot trucks. LeBlanca maxed out his debit card renting one, and Garcia had to use his card, too. Both, incredibly, used their real names - a mistake that would come back to haunt them. It was still daylight when they arrived at the In Style, USA warehouse. Jones led the fake raid wearing a hat and a hoodie that obscured his face.
A police badge hung from his thick neck. "We have papers, documentation," Jones told them, reading names from his printouts. He told employees they were suspected of selling knockoff merchandise, and accused their boss of hiring undocumented workers and not paying taxes.
The robber-cops used plastic ties to bind the employees. "We were tied up for three hours," one said later. "It was really bad for everyone." But fear did not silence everyone. The warehouse owner spoke out at one point, saying, according to police testimony: "You're not cops." The helpless hostages heard the beeping noise of trucks backing up.
Day laborers hired by the holdup crew did the loading. There were six trucks in all. Four carrying hundreds of boxes of perfume and other merchandise valued at $1 million got away, but the two 24-foot trucks rented earlier that day were left behind after someone called the police.
Afterward, panic set in. Jones advised his cohorts to report that cards used at the truck rental office had been stolen. But when it dawned on Checo that Jones had made himself a "ghost" - with the prepaid phones, the alias, the out-of-state plates - and he lashed out. "If I get arrested and lose my job, I'm going to rat you out," he recalled telling Jones.
Tension only grew when Jones paid the men $2,000 apiece, half of what they were promised. "They are coming," Checo told Jones, referring to police investigators. And he was right. Police and federal agents arrested the officers.
The owner of the truck rental agency picked Jones out of a photo array. Checo, as promised, flipped, and the other two robbers also cooperated. Jones was convicted at a federal trial in Newark in December 2010.
At sentencing, he claimed, "I was framed," but the judge was unmoved.
The former NYPD undercover is serving a 16-year sentence in an Ohio prison.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Rookie Officer Alexandru Baiasu Arrested for Assaulting Fiancee
A rookie NYPD cop was arrested in Queens Saturday for assaulting his fiancée, officials said.
Off-duty Officer Alexandru Baiasu, 27, was arrested about 10:50 p.m. at his Rego Park home after attacking his 31-year-old fiancée during an argument, cops said.
Baiasu, who was newly assigned to the Police Academy, was charged with assault and harassment, officials said.
Off-duty Officer Alexandru Baiasu, 27, was arrested about 10:50 p.m. at his Rego Park home after attacking his 31-year-old fiancée during an argument, cops said.
Baiasu, who was newly assigned to the Police Academy, was charged with assault and harassment, officials said.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Incidents caught on camera increase department scrutiny of officers
Minutes after a suburban Chicago police officer was charged with striking a motorist with his baton, prosecutors handed out copies of a video showing the beating - taken by a dashboard camera on the officer's own squad car.
In California, after a transit cop and an unruly train passenger slammed against a wall during a struggle and shattered a station window last fall, video from a bystander's cell phone was all over the Internet before the window was fixed.
The same cell phones, surveillance cameras and other video equipment often used to assist police are also catching officers on tape, changing the nature of police work - for better and worse.
Some say cameras are exposing behavior that police have gotten away with for years. But others contend the videos, which often show a snippet of an incident, turn officers into villains simply for doing their jobs, making them targets of lawsuits and discipline from bosses buckling to public pressure.
"We tell our officers all the time you've got to assume that everything you do is going to be videotaped," said Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis. "Everyone has a cell phone and almost every cell phone has a camera."
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said the video her office gave to the media on Tuesday shows police officer James Mandarino, from the Chicago suburb of Streamwood, hitting motorist Ronald Bell 15 times after a traffic stop last month.
In the video, Mandarino is seen firing a Taser at a passenger in the car and then striking Bell, who is on his knees with his hands on his head. Bell suffered a concussion and cuts that required seven stitches.
"It's a wonderful tool," Alvarez said of the video, which she says suggests that both men posed no threat to the officer.
Though police-behaving-badly videos have become popular staples of cable news shows and the Internet, Weis said he doesn't believe his officers are overly cautious out of fears they'll be videotaped - and their superiors are not advising them to be.
Quietly, though, some officers say the prospect of being videotaped makes them hesitate even if they know they should act.
"I've heard from officers who are sent to break up a fight in the street and see a group of people leaning out windows with handheld video cameras ... they go slower and are less aggressive," said Tom Needham, a Chicago attorney who has represented several police officers.
But University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman, who has studied police brutality, said videos are helping hold police accountable.
"My own view is that YouTube has done more to expose the reality of police abuse than all the blue-ribbon commissions combined," said Futterman.
A Chicago police officer who was arrested three years ago in the videotaped beating of a female bartender never would have been charged much less convicted if not for the video, Futterman said. Anthony Abbate initially was charged with a misdemeanor until the video played across the world.
Ronald Bell's brother, Stacey Bell, said he doubts the Streamwood officer would have been charged with felony aggravated battery and official misconduct without the video and his brother still would have faced charges of drunken driving and resisting an officer, which were dropped.
"I believe it would have been six witnesses against an officer and it would have been a different story," said Stacey Bell, who witnessed the alleged beating. The officer's attorney declined to comment.
But some caution that incidents caught on tape can misrepresent police work.
"The work of a police officer, even when done properly is ... not pleasant to watch," said Al O'Leary, spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association in New York City. "We've had situations, circumstances where an officer doing his job by the book is caught on video is tagged as brutal. Sometimes the work is brutal but necessary."
In California when the Bay Area Rapid Transit officer slammed into a window with a suspect during a violent arrest, the cell phone video - viewed more than 160,000 times on one clip posted on YouTube - ended up exonerating the officer whose actions brought claims of excessive force, a union official said.
"It wasn't the suspect's head that caused the glass to break," said Jesse Sekhon, BART police officers union president. "When you freeze the video and enhance it you see it was the suspect punching it with his hand."
What's more, video viewers rarely hear the frantic 911 call for help, rocks hurled at an approaching squad car or the countless times police have been called to the same house.
In New York City in 2008, a man died after falling from a building ledge when police jolted him with a Taser. Video of the last few moments, including Iman Morales' fall, was posted on newspaper Web sites and played over and over again on local TV.
But before the cameras were running, "this guy was stark naked, running up and down the fire escape, he tried to get into a woman's apartment by tearing out the air conditioner, terrifying the woman," and swung a fluorescent light bulb at police before Lt. Michael Pigott ordered him shot him with the stun gun, said Tom Sullivan, president of the NYPD's Lieutenants Benevolent Association.
Eight days later, Pigott - stripped of his gun and badge and demoted - committed suicide, leaving a note saying he was trying to protect his men. His widow, who is suing the police department, said the discipline humiliated her husband. The department declined to comment.
There is little chance that the videotaped scrutiny of police will slow. In fact, groups with video cameras follow police in cities all over the country, including Orlando, Fla., where George Crossley launched Orlando CopWatch in 2006.
"If we come up on law enforcement, the whole shift knows immediately," said Crossley. "They get on the radio (and say) 'Watch out for CopWatch.'"
In California, after a transit cop and an unruly train passenger slammed against a wall during a struggle and shattered a station window last fall, video from a bystander's cell phone was all over the Internet before the window was fixed.
The same cell phones, surveillance cameras and other video equipment often used to assist police are also catching officers on tape, changing the nature of police work - for better and worse.
Some say cameras are exposing behavior that police have gotten away with for years. But others contend the videos, which often show a snippet of an incident, turn officers into villains simply for doing their jobs, making them targets of lawsuits and discipline from bosses buckling to public pressure.
"We tell our officers all the time you've got to assume that everything you do is going to be videotaped," said Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis. "Everyone has a cell phone and almost every cell phone has a camera."
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said the video her office gave to the media on Tuesday shows police officer James Mandarino, from the Chicago suburb of Streamwood, hitting motorist Ronald Bell 15 times after a traffic stop last month.
In the video, Mandarino is seen firing a Taser at a passenger in the car and then striking Bell, who is on his knees with his hands on his head. Bell suffered a concussion and cuts that required seven stitches.
"It's a wonderful tool," Alvarez said of the video, which she says suggests that both men posed no threat to the officer.
Though police-behaving-badly videos have become popular staples of cable news shows and the Internet, Weis said he doesn't believe his officers are overly cautious out of fears they'll be videotaped - and their superiors are not advising them to be.
Quietly, though, some officers say the prospect of being videotaped makes them hesitate even if they know they should act.
"I've heard from officers who are sent to break up a fight in the street and see a group of people leaning out windows with handheld video cameras ... they go slower and are less aggressive," said Tom Needham, a Chicago attorney who has represented several police officers.
But University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman, who has studied police brutality, said videos are helping hold police accountable.
"My own view is that YouTube has done more to expose the reality of police abuse than all the blue-ribbon commissions combined," said Futterman.
A Chicago police officer who was arrested three years ago in the videotaped beating of a female bartender never would have been charged much less convicted if not for the video, Futterman said. Anthony Abbate initially was charged with a misdemeanor until the video played across the world.
Ronald Bell's brother, Stacey Bell, said he doubts the Streamwood officer would have been charged with felony aggravated battery and official misconduct without the video and his brother still would have faced charges of drunken driving and resisting an officer, which were dropped.
"I believe it would have been six witnesses against an officer and it would have been a different story," said Stacey Bell, who witnessed the alleged beating. The officer's attorney declined to comment.
But some caution that incidents caught on tape can misrepresent police work.
"The work of a police officer, even when done properly is ... not pleasant to watch," said Al O'Leary, spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association in New York City. "We've had situations, circumstances where an officer doing his job by the book is caught on video is tagged as brutal. Sometimes the work is brutal but necessary."
In California when the Bay Area Rapid Transit officer slammed into a window with a suspect during a violent arrest, the cell phone video - viewed more than 160,000 times on one clip posted on YouTube - ended up exonerating the officer whose actions brought claims of excessive force, a union official said.
"It wasn't the suspect's head that caused the glass to break," said Jesse Sekhon, BART police officers union president. "When you freeze the video and enhance it you see it was the suspect punching it with his hand."
What's more, video viewers rarely hear the frantic 911 call for help, rocks hurled at an approaching squad car or the countless times police have been called to the same house.
In New York City in 2008, a man died after falling from a building ledge when police jolted him with a Taser. Video of the last few moments, including Iman Morales' fall, was posted on newspaper Web sites and played over and over again on local TV.
But before the cameras were running, "this guy was stark naked, running up and down the fire escape, he tried to get into a woman's apartment by tearing out the air conditioner, terrifying the woman," and swung a fluorescent light bulb at police before Lt. Michael Pigott ordered him shot him with the stun gun, said Tom Sullivan, president of the NYPD's Lieutenants Benevolent Association.
Eight days later, Pigott - stripped of his gun and badge and demoted - committed suicide, leaving a note saying he was trying to protect his men. His widow, who is suing the police department, said the discipline humiliated her husband. The department declined to comment.
There is little chance that the videotaped scrutiny of police will slow. In fact, groups with video cameras follow police in cities all over the country, including Orlando, Fla., where George Crossley launched Orlando CopWatch in 2006.
"If we come up on law enforcement, the whole shift knows immediately," said Crossley. "They get on the radio (and say) 'Watch out for CopWatch.'"
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Officer Roniel Dilone Charged with Drunk Driving
Another NYPD officer has been charged with boozing behind the wheel after he smashed his car in the Bronx, badly injuring his passenger.
Officer Roniel Dilone, who was off-duty at the time, told an EMT at the scene that he had four beers before the crash early Sunday, according to court papers.
He refused to take a Breathalyzer test. His blood was drawn after cops got a warrant, and results are pending.
The 27-year-old cop, who has been on the force for four years, was driving in Throgs Neck when he smashed his Nissan Altima into a parked Subaru - sending it into a tree before his car jumped the curb, court papers said.
He was not badly injured, but his passenger, Allan Reyes, suffered a fractured leg and shoulder and badly bruised his ribs.
Dilone had "a flushed face and bloodshot, watery eyes," according to court papers.
"I was driving, then the next thing, I heard my passenger screaming that he thinks his leg is broken," Dilone told police at the scene.
Dilone was charged with vehicular assault and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.
The NYPD - which did not make the accident public, as normally happens when an officer faces a serious charge - suspended Dilone without pay.
Dilone, who is assigned to the 28th Precinct, was released without bail at his arraignment. He refused to open the door at his Parkchester home yesterday.
"I can't say anything," he said.
His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
The NYPD has been plagued by a recent rash of cops busted for drunken driving.
Two weeks ago, off-duty Officer Raphael Ospina plowed his Chrysler into a garbage truck in midtown, flipped over and smacked into Tiffany's, according to authorities. Ospina broke three ribs, and two friends in the car were also hurt.
In November, off-duty Detective Kevin Spellman was charged with running down and killing a Bronx grandmother after drinking at a nearby bar. And in September, Officer Andrew Kelly was charged in Brooklyn with killing a preacher's daughter while driving drunk.
Officer Roniel Dilone, who was off-duty at the time, told an EMT at the scene that he had four beers before the crash early Sunday, according to court papers.
He refused to take a Breathalyzer test. His blood was drawn after cops got a warrant, and results are pending.
The 27-year-old cop, who has been on the force for four years, was driving in Throgs Neck when he smashed his Nissan Altima into a parked Subaru - sending it into a tree before his car jumped the curb, court papers said.
He was not badly injured, but his passenger, Allan Reyes, suffered a fractured leg and shoulder and badly bruised his ribs.
Dilone had "a flushed face and bloodshot, watery eyes," according to court papers.
"I was driving, then the next thing, I heard my passenger screaming that he thinks his leg is broken," Dilone told police at the scene.
Dilone was charged with vehicular assault and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.
The NYPD - which did not make the accident public, as normally happens when an officer faces a serious charge - suspended Dilone without pay.
Dilone, who is assigned to the 28th Precinct, was released without bail at his arraignment. He refused to open the door at his Parkchester home yesterday.
"I can't say anything," he said.
His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
The NYPD has been plagued by a recent rash of cops busted for drunken driving.
Two weeks ago, off-duty Officer Raphael Ospina plowed his Chrysler into a garbage truck in midtown, flipped over and smacked into Tiffany's, according to authorities. Ospina broke three ribs, and two friends in the car were also hurt.
In November, off-duty Detective Kevin Spellman was charged with running down and killing a Bronx grandmother after drinking at a nearby bar. And in September, Officer Andrew Kelly was charged in Brooklyn with killing a preacher's daughter while driving drunk.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Sgt Reginald McReynolds Says He is Victim of Racial Profiling by NYPD
The New York Police Department has been accused of racial profiling by one of its own.
NYPD Sgt. Reginald McReynolds, who is African-American, said he was a victim of racial profiling when he was stopped by two fellow police officers while in his girlfriend's apartment building in the Bronx on October 26.
According to the official police report, the officers were responding to a domestic abuse call in the same building and mistook McReynolds for the suspect, handcuffing him after he refused to identify himself.
Eric Sanders, McReynolds' attorney, told a different story.
As a former NYPD officer himself, Sanders claims McReynolds immediately identified himself despite what he said was a lack of grounds for stopping him.
"You have to have a legal basis to stop someone in the first place," Sanders said. "They can't do that in a private building unless they establish that there are some grounds for suspicion."
The police report cites the Clean Halls program, which allows officers to stop suspicious occupants of private buildings, interrogate them and place them under arrest for criminal trespass, as legal basis for interrogating McReynolds,
McReynolds was walking up the building's stairs, returning with a bag of take-out Chinese food, when he encountered Officers Kyle Bach and Joseph Azevedo. Both officers had just left an apartment on the same floor as McReynolds' girlfriend, Yvelisse Cruz, in response to a domestic abuse call.
The police report said, after being advised that the alleged suspect might still in the building, the officers immediately stopped McReynolds thinking he might be the alleged abuser.
The report also said that after refusing to answer interrogation questions, they attempted to handcuff him as McReynolds pushed Azevedo in the chest. Cruz, who took pictures of the incident, was then instructed by McReynolds to call 911, and, according to the report, was told to lie to the dispatcher and claim that "a uniformed member of the services was hitting him in the face."
When back-up officers were called in, McReynolds was released, but was later suspended for 30 days on charges of misconduct toward an officer. He has since been ruled to be fit for duty and has returned to his position in the Quality Assurance Division of the department.
Sanders maintained that McReynolds is innocent on all counts of alleged misconduct.
Both Sanders and the police report said that McReynolds clarified that he "was on the job." Sanders explained this is a common phrase among the law enforcement community as indication of officer status, adding that the officers should have recognized that.
Sanders also said McReynolds never pushed any of the officers, and never instructed Cruz to lie on the 911 call, citing the lack of a call transcript in the police report.
A spokesperson for the NYPD said that the police commissioner was aware of the incident but had no comment.
Sanders said he plans on filing suit against the City of New York and linking this case with another racial profiling case involving three black detectives to show a pattern of racial profiling in the city.
"African-Americans and Latino citizens are stopped by police on a higher basis than any other group in New York and most don't even end in arrest," said Sanders. "They're tossing people to find an arrest. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. They think 'If I toss ten people, then I'll find maybe one out of ten.'"
No charges have been filed against the officers involved.
NYPD Sgt. Reginald McReynolds, who is African-American, said he was a victim of racial profiling when he was stopped by two fellow police officers while in his girlfriend's apartment building in the Bronx on October 26.
According to the official police report, the officers were responding to a domestic abuse call in the same building and mistook McReynolds for the suspect, handcuffing him after he refused to identify himself.
Eric Sanders, McReynolds' attorney, told a different story.
As a former NYPD officer himself, Sanders claims McReynolds immediately identified himself despite what he said was a lack of grounds for stopping him.
"You have to have a legal basis to stop someone in the first place," Sanders said. "They can't do that in a private building unless they establish that there are some grounds for suspicion."
The police report cites the Clean Halls program, which allows officers to stop suspicious occupants of private buildings, interrogate them and place them under arrest for criminal trespass, as legal basis for interrogating McReynolds,
McReynolds was walking up the building's stairs, returning with a bag of take-out Chinese food, when he encountered Officers Kyle Bach and Joseph Azevedo. Both officers had just left an apartment on the same floor as McReynolds' girlfriend, Yvelisse Cruz, in response to a domestic abuse call.
The police report said, after being advised that the alleged suspect might still in the building, the officers immediately stopped McReynolds thinking he might be the alleged abuser.
The report also said that after refusing to answer interrogation questions, they attempted to handcuff him as McReynolds pushed Azevedo in the chest. Cruz, who took pictures of the incident, was then instructed by McReynolds to call 911, and, according to the report, was told to lie to the dispatcher and claim that "a uniformed member of the services was hitting him in the face."
When back-up officers were called in, McReynolds was released, but was later suspended for 30 days on charges of misconduct toward an officer. He has since been ruled to be fit for duty and has returned to his position in the Quality Assurance Division of the department.
Sanders maintained that McReynolds is innocent on all counts of alleged misconduct.
Both Sanders and the police report said that McReynolds clarified that he "was on the job." Sanders explained this is a common phrase among the law enforcement community as indication of officer status, adding that the officers should have recognized that.
Sanders also said McReynolds never pushed any of the officers, and never instructed Cruz to lie on the 911 call, citing the lack of a call transcript in the police report.
A spokesperson for the NYPD said that the police commissioner was aware of the incident but had no comment.
Sanders said he plans on filing suit against the City of New York and linking this case with another racial profiling case involving three black detectives to show a pattern of racial profiling in the city.
"African-Americans and Latino citizens are stopped by police on a higher basis than any other group in New York and most don't even end in arrest," said Sanders. "They're tossing people to find an arrest. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. They think 'If I toss ten people, then I'll find maybe one out of ten.'"
No charges have been filed against the officers involved.
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