‘Flagrant abuse’
DA rips cop busted in homeless-teen beat
A fuming city cop, after his beatdown of a handcuffed homeless teen, launched a failed coverup of his brutal behavior, prosecutors charged Wednesday.
Officer Elijah Saladeen, 48, was the one in cuffs after his arrest at the 5th Precinct stationhouse in Chinatown around 9 a.m. Saladeen, in a one-sided attack captured on surveillance video, pounded the helpless 19-year-old in his head, face, ribs and side — even landing a few last punches before an ambulance arrived to aid the battered victim, authorities said.
“This defendant is charged with flagrantly abusing his position as an officer of the law when he beat and dragged a young man and then lied about the attack to his superiors, to prosecutors, and in official charging documents,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.
The 19-year NYPD veteran cut a confident figure as he entered a plea of not guilty in the Feb. 24 incident inside a building on W. 17th St. in Chelsea.
“I believe when all the facts are known, the situation will be different,” said defense attorney Rae Downes Koshet. “He’s an active officer who’s worked in public housing for the last 19 years. My information is that this man was resisting while he was in custody.”
But prosecutors asserted that closed-circuit TV and witness accounts contradict Saladeen’s claim that the teenager’s wounds were selfinflicted while fighting back. And they charged that Saladeen falsified the details in his official NYPD report.
Saladeen was answering a call at 418 W. 17th St when he encountered a homeless teen sleeping on the building’s stairwell on the 25th floor. The officer and the suspect began scuffling as they rode the elevator to the lobby, with the mouthy teen spewing invective at the arresting cop.
When the elevator reached the lobby, the infuriated Saladeen climbed atop the teen and “repeatedly punched him about the head,” prosecutors charged.
The suspect, bleeding from a 4-stitch wound beneath one eye and bruised across his face, was still in cuffs when Saladeen dragged him across the lobby to landed a few more blows to the ribs and side before EMTs reached the scene, authorities said.
The suspect’s hands, prosecutors stressed, were cuffed during the duration of the beating and a source indicated Saladeen “beat his ass.”
Saladeen, in a navy blazer and light blue tie, was held on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond at his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment. He was charged with filing a false instrument, lying on documents and assault.
Saladeen previously was one of four cops sued by Yvette Hughes for a false arrest in the lobby of a NYCHA building on Madison St. in lower Manhattan. According to the civil complaint, Hughes had been invited to a friend’s fourth-floor apartment on March 19, 2009, when she was wrongly busted for trespassing.
The charges were later dismissed, and she collected a $25,000 settlement from the city in 2010.