VICIOuS CYCLE
Queens man who fell off bike says cops roughed him up
A QUEENS MAN caught on camera flying off his bicycle during a police stop landed in handcuffs in what his lawyers claim is a coverup of excessive force.
Heins Rodriguez, 26, was biking without a helmet along 43rd Ave. in Corona in August 2015 when an unmarked cop car suddenly pulled up beside him and he tumbled to the ground.
Two officers then got out of their vehicle, cuffed Rodriguez and charged him with resisting arrest, according to the man’s 2016 lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The cyclist’s legal team insists the minute-long security camera video proves the charges were trumped up.
Cops say Rodriguez was pedaling the wrong way when Officers Zheng Zuopeng and Alan Chen spotted him.
As they try to nab him, one of the officers claimed Rodriguez flailed around, refusing to be handcuffed.
Rodriguez’s lawyers, however, say the video shows the cop car hit or at least came “unreasonably close to Mr. Rodriguez.” They added that Rodriguez had his earbuds in and wasn’t aware the cops were behind him.
The video shows the cyclist mostly standing still as the officers cuff him and then sit him down on the sidewalk.
Cops argue that the video is “inconclusive” and talk of a cover up is “speculation,” according to filings.
Authorities later found 12 bags of marijuana in Rodriguez’s backpack.
The misdemeanor case was eventually dismissed.
After the fall, the bicycler got woozy and says he suffered a permanent back injury.
Additionally, Rodriguez, a former bartender/waiter, previously testified that he sometimes gets “fidgety” when he sees cops.
“Like I don’t feel the same way about them as I used to,” he said.
Gabriel Harvis, one of Rodriguez’s lawyers, told the Daily News that the suit is about “dangerous pursuit tactics and officers who willingly lied in an effort to cover them up.”
“When officers can manufacture evidence as we see here, no one is safe,” Harvis said.
Rodriguez is suing for unspecified damages.
A city Law Department spokesman noted the case was in discovery and referred The News to the city’s legal filings.