Cops hunt duo in B’klyn slay
A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit filed by a Staten Island man who claimed NYPD cops pummeled him while he suffered an asthma attack in Greenwich Village.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Andrew Carter approved the city’s motion Tuesday for summary judgment against James Rolkiewicz (inset), who alleged Police Officers Colin Sullivan and James Quirk called him anti-gay slurs and beat him because he was sitting on the steps of Greenwich House Music on Barrow St. on Sept. 1, 2015.
In his $6 million lawsuit, Rolkiewicz claimed he was having trouble breathing and sat down to search for his inhaler when the cops allegedly laid into him.
One of the officers “repeatedly called him ‘a f—-ing f——t’ while demanding his identification, while plaintiff was having an asthma attack,” the lawsuit charged.
The same cop cuffed him and “repeatedly smashed his face and head into the hood of the NYPD patrol car” — while the other officer did nothing, the suit alleged.
Rolkiewicz was “brutally handled, punched, kicked, abusively treated, placed in a chokehold, handcuffed and choked until he lost consciousness,” the filing says. City attorneys claimed Rolkiewicz made up the entire narrative. The officers approached him, asked for his ID and took him into custody when they learned that he had five outstanding warrants, authorities said.
Cops found a crack pipe on Rolkiewicz, and when he refused to be handcuffed, officers were forced to use a baton, city officials said.
Rolkiewicz also never lost consciousness, according to police.
In his decision, Carter said Rolkiewicz’s medical records and other evidence contradicted his claims. “No reasonable jury could conclude that Quirk and Sullivan engaged in a civil rights conspiracy here,” Carter wrote.
Patricia Miller, Chief of the city Law Department’s Special Federal Litigation Division, applauded Carter’s decision.
“[Rolkiewicz] falsely and outrageously accused these officers of targeting and beating him because of his sexual orientation,” Miller said.
Rolkiewicz’s attorney, Pamela Roth, said she was planning to file an appeal “immediately.”
Cops released photos Wednesday of a pair of suspects sought in the shooting death of a 22year-old man outside a Brooklyn housing project.
The two men are suspected of killing Dontae McKenzie, who was shot in the chest outside the Glenwood Houses in Flatlands on Feb. 11.
McKenzie was standing in