COP’S LIGHT SLAP
Loses vacation time for tackle of tennis’ Blake
THE COP WHO tackled former pro tennis star James Blake got a penalty of five lost vacation days — half of that recommended by an independent oversight board, the Daily News has learned.
Officer James Frascatore (right) was slapped with the five-day penalty by Police Commissioner James O’Neill in February, sources told The News. The decision came five months after Frascatore was found guilty of excessive force following a departmental trial.
Lawyers for the Civilian Complaint Review Board had recommended he lose 10 vacation days for the Sept. 9, 2015, encounter outside a hotel on E. 42nd St. near Lexington Ave. Frascatore was on a stakeout and mistook Blake for a credit card scammer.
Blake himself found even that penalty inadequate, saying he wanted the cop fired. “Losing five vacation days for excessive force is a woefully inadequate penalty," Blake’s lawyer Kevin Marino told The News. “Far from serving as a deterrent, a trivial penalty of that type would seem to be encouraging those inclined toward excessive force to go right on doing it.”
Frascatore’s lawyer Stephen Worth called his client’s actions “appropriate” at the trial in September.
Frascatore is white. Blake is biracial. The case was viewed as an example of how black men can be treated at the hands of the police. Then-Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor de Blasio apologized to Blake.
O’Neill’s five-day penalty was criticized by civil rights groups Thursday.
“That he was not fired after being found guilty of excessive force against James Blake ... is a testament to the fact that the NYPD has a disciplinary system that prioritizes protecting abusive officers over public safety,” said Monifa Bandele, spokeswoman for Communities United for Police Reform and Senior Vice President at MomsRising.
The NYPD’s decision “will just add to public distrust of the police department’s disciplinary process,” said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. The CCRB declined to comment.
The NYPD did not disclose the decision in the excessive force case publicly because of a policy to withhold disciplinary outcomes, citing Section 50-a of the state Civil Rights Law.
“Following the public disciplinary trial of Police Officer James Frascatore, the commissioner finalized the case, consistent with the findings and recommendations of the trial’s commissioner,” the NYPD said in a statement.