Various scandals and allegations of the New York City Police Department have occurred throughout the department's history, some involving police misconduct.
In 1970, police officer Frank Serpico and other officers, testified before the Knapp Commission about the corruption they witnessed in the department. The Commission's findings led to reforms within the department, developed by Commissioner Patrick Murphy. Reforms included decentralizing corruption control, within Field Investigative Units, which were intended to be closer and more in touch with the streets where the problems were. There have been other commissions investigating the NYPD before and after the Knapp Commission, including 1994's Mollen Commission, which documented widespread police abuse.[1]
Some of the higher-profile incidents involving allegations of police misconduct within the NYPD are summarized as follows:
In 1962, the future convicted Bonanno crime family mobster Frank Lino was arrested for his alleged involvement in the shootings of two Brooklyn police detectives. The detectives, aged 28 and 56, were shot dead during a holdup of a tobacco store in Gravesend, Brooklyn, where Lino and two others netted $5,000. Lino was charged with the murders after supplying a getaway vehicle for one of the "stick-up men" so that he could then flee to Chicago. Lino was one of the five men charged after being taken to the 66th Precinct for an interrogation. During Lino's interrogation, he claimed that police officers drove staples into his hands and a broomstick up his rectum. He alleged that the abuse resulted in a broken leg and arm. Lino was later released with three years probation after he threatened to sue the city for police brutality. He also claimed that the uncontrollable blinking of his eyes was a direct result of the alleged beating.
In August 1988, a riot erupted in Alphabet City's Tompkins Square Park in the East Village of Manhattan when police attempted to enforce a newly-passed curfew for the park. Bystanders, artists, residents, homeless people and political activists clashed with police on the night of August 6 and the early morning of the following day.[2] In a report released by Commissioner Benjamin Ward, the police department's actions were "not well planned, staffed, supervised or executed... which culminated in a riot."
On December 22, 1994, 29-year old Anthony Baez was choked to death by police officer Francis X. Livoti in the University Heights section of the Bronx. In 1998, Livoti was convicted of violating Baez' civil rights, and two other officers were convicted of lying on the witness stand at Livoti's trial.[3]
On August 9, 1997, Police Officer Justin Volpe in Brooklyn sodomized Abner Louima with a broken broom handle in the 70th Precinct bathroom. Officer Volpe eventually pled guilty and received a sentence of 30 years in federal prison. Other officers were also implicated and convicted on charges stemming from the initial cover-up.[4]
On February 4, 1999, four plainclothes NYPD officers working under the Street Crimes Unit fired 41 gunshots at Amadou Diallo, killing him instantly. Diallo, whom the officers mistook for a since-convicted rapist, was later found to be unarmed. The officers were subsequently acquitted, but the City of New York and the NYPD later paid out US$3,000,000 to Diallo's parents in a civil suit. Following the controversy, the Street Crimes Unit was abolished three years later.
On May 22, 2003, 43-year old Ousmane Zongo, an immigrant from Burkina Faso, was shot four times by Police Officer Bryan Conroy in a Chelsea warehouse. In 2005, Conroy was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to 5 years probation. In 2006, the city awarded the Zongo family $3 million to settle a wrongful death suit.[5]
Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa who, while on the payroll of the NYPD, were also on the payroll of the Lucchese crime family and were abusing their authority as officers of the NYPD. They would routinely violate the civil rights of the citizens of New York City, and moonlighted for the crime family. They would use NYPD files to track down the enemies of the crime family and were ultimately convicted of the murders of Eddie Lino, Michael Greenwald (an informant for the FBI) and innocent man Nick Guido who had the same name as a man targeted by the crime family. Eppolito received life in prison with an additional 100 years and Caracappa received life in prison with an additional 80 years. They were also fined a combined $4 million. They received a monthly salary of $5000 from the crime family.[6]
On January 24, 2004, Housing Bureau officer Richard Neri, Jr., accidentally shot to death Timothy Stansbury, a 19-year-old black man who was trespassing on the roof landing of a Bedford-Stuyvesant housing project. Stansbury was unarmed but had apparently startled Neri upon opening the roof door coming upon the officer. At that point, Neri discharged his service firearm and mortally wounded Stansbury. Although Commissioner Kelly stated that the shooting appeared "unjustified", a Brooklyn jury found that no criminal act occurred and that the event was a tragic accident. Neri was thus cleared of all charges.[7] The city later agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the Stansbury family. A grand jury declined to indict Neri but Kelly later suspended him for 30 days without pay and permanently stripped him of his weapon.[8]
Dennis Kim and Jerry Svoronos, two New York City Police Officers working out of the 109th Precinct, Gina Kim and Geeho Chae, brothel operators, were arrested on March 8, 2006, for bribery charges relating to the protection of a brothel located in Flushing, Queens. Agents seized approximately $800,000 in cash, believed to be the proceeds of the brothel, from Kim and Chae's vehicle and residence. On March 8, 2006 search warrants were executed at the brothel and a boarding house used by the brothel workers, and agents seized immigration documents, business records, and a small quantity of ecstasy. The two officers were in a unit which targets quality-of-life-type crimes.[9] Members of the precincts engaged in a practice known as "flaking", in which cops planted marijuana, cocaine, or Ecstasy on suspects. Members of the conditions unit maintained a small stash of drug in an Altoids tin for this purpose, Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Ryan said.[10] In addition, 16 Chinese and Korean brothel workers were taken into immigration custody.
On November 25, 2006, plainclothes police officers shot and killed Sean Bell and wounded two of his companions, one critically, outside of the Kalua Cabaret in Queens. No weapon was recovered.[11] According to the police, Bell rammed his vehicle into an undercover officer and hit an unmarked NYPD minivan twice, prompting undercover officers to fire fifty rounds into Bell's car. A bullet piercing the nearby AirTrain JFK facility startled two Port Authority patrolmen stationed there.[12] An undercover officer claims he heard one of the unarmed man's companions threaten to get his gun to settle a fight with another individual. Civil case resumes May 6, 2010.[13] On April 25, 2008, Justice Arthur Cooperman cleared Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora of murder charges and Detective Marc Cooper of reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell.[14]
On October 29, 2008, officer Jorge Arbaje-Diaz pled not guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to charges that he kidnapped, robbed, and tortured drug dealers for more than 1,600 pounds (730 kg) of cocaine and $4 million in cash.[15]
On October 15, 2008, five officers attempted to arrest Michael Mineo for smoking marijuana in a Brooklyn subway station. Days later, Mineo made accusations claiming he was sodomized with a police radio antenna by the officers. On December 9, 2008, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced that three of the officers, Richard Kern, Alex Cruz, and Andrew Morales, were indicted on criminal charges. According to the District Attorney, officer Kern sodomized Mineo with his expandable baton after the officers handcuffed him. Officer Kern was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault, and faced up to 25 years in prison, and officers Cruz and Morales were charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct, and faced up to 4 years in prison.[16] All three officers were acquitted of all charges.
In May 2010, Adrian Schoolcraft, a former NYPD officer, publicized recordings he'd made in secret while on duty, showing a pattern of corruption and retaliation against him for refusing to cooperate. Officers detained citizens without charges to meet quotas, and failed to report serious crimes including rapes to make their department appear to be reducing crime rates. When the NYPD learned that Schoolcraft was privately investigating the corruption, his mental health was called into question as an excuse to have armed officers kidnap him from his home and imprison him in a hospital. He is currently suspended without pay and is filing suit against the NYPD. [17][18][19]
In August 2010, 11-year-old Briana Ojeda died from an asthma attack after an NYPD officer denied her mother's pleas to perform CPR. Ojeda's mother allegedly was driving her daughter to the hospital when she took a wrong one-way turn in a neighborhood street and stopped to ask Officer Alfonso Mendez for help. Ojeda's mother claimed Mendez smirked at her and said, "I don't know CPR." and tried to ticket her. A bystander performed CPR and by the time an ambulance arrived, Mendez had left. After a one week manhunt, Mendez was identified and has been suspended without pay indefinately.
In December 2008, two on-duty NYPD officers were charged with raping a woman whom they had been dispatched to help on a 911 call. Officers Kenneth Moreno, age 43, and Franklin Mata, age 29, were called to help a drunken woman climb out of a taxi and into her apartment in 2008. The woman testified that she awoke in her bedroom to being raped by Moreno; Mata was said to have acted as a lookout during the incident. Although both men were acquitted of the rape at trial in May 2011, the jury's verdict proved highly controversial and drew large protests.[20] Moreno and Mata were, however, found guilty of official misconduct for going back into the woman's apartment three times without alerting their superiors. As a result of the convictions, both officers were immediately terminated from the NYPD.[21][22]
In September 2011, an off-duty NYPD officer was charged with raping a schoolteacher at gunpoint. According to the woman, she was stopped by the officer who was allegedly intoxicated and ordered her into a alley as he pointed a gun into her face. After raping her, she fled for help and called 911. The NYPD was able to confirm that the officer was drunk and armed, but the officer denies raping her. He was charged with 10 counts of rape and plead not guilty.
In October 2011, 16 NYPD police officers were charged with offenses related to ticket fixing.[23]
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||