JUSTICE IS TRASHED
Bad ‘litter’ bust shows cops can pursue case even DA tossed
A box of candy dropped on a sidewalk in Brooklyn that escalated into a neighborhood showdown involving more than two dozen police officers has sparked a federal lawsuit that raises questions about the NYPD’s controversial stepped-up stop and frisk efforts.
Police body camera video obtained by The News captures the moment police officers corralled and roughed up a young Brooklyn man last year for “littering” — supposedly throwing a box of Mike and Ike candy on the sidewalk.
The video of the April 22 encounter was obtained as part of a lawsuit filed last week in Brooklyn federal court by Manuel Morales, 21, who claims he suffered a serious shoulder injury during the chaotic arrest.
Morales was hit with resisting-arrest charges, but the Brooklyn DA’s office declined to prosecute the very same day. The NYPD then brought an administrative charge in Manhattan summons court in which the officer accused of injuring Morales acted as the “prosecutor,” court records show.
That case was also dismissed, the lawsuit indicates.
The lawsuit claims the officers violated Morales’ civil rights and challenges the NYPD’s practice of filing a charge in summons court after the DA has opted to dismiss the case.
“This case is the perfect example of the way that summons court can be exploited by the NYPD to conceal police abuse,” said Morales’ lawyer MK Kaishian.
“First they stopped him without cause, then they arrested him with no basis, held and questioned him. And after the DA declined the case noting they should not have brought him in, they took him to summons court which is effectively a police misconduct laundromat.”
The federal monitor tracking NYPD stop and frisk data said in February that illegal frisks of New Yorkers rose from 16% of stops in 2021 to 23% in 2022. The report found that precinct Neighborhood Safety Teams had no reasonable suspicion to stop someone 24% of the time.
The NYPD declined to comment on pending litigation and would not say how commonly it files such cases after a prosecutor’s office has declined. A city Law Department spokesman did not immediately reply to an email about the suit.
According to the video, Morales, then 21, was walking along Mother Gaston Blvd. near Sutter Ave. about 5 p.m. Three 73rd Precinct officers circling the block jumped out of their car and confronted him.
“I got ID on me, why you hopping out on me,” Morales said.
“Because you just littered,” an officer identified in the suit as Robert Stosch said.
“I littered?” said Morales, showing his identification card and telling his friends to “chill, chill, chill,” body came video shows.
“Yeah, you threw Mike and Ike’s on the floor,” Stosch replied.
As a crowd gathered, tensions climbed, shown in several dozen body camera videos viewed by The News. Members of the crowd hurled threats and verbal abuse at the officers.
A sergeant used pepper spray on the crowd, the videos show. Other officers shoved members of the crowd. In all, 33 cops rushed to the scene, some jogging there on foot, others in their cars.
“Your boys are making it a bigger problem than it needs to be,” Stosch says, the video shows.
“All right you’re coming back with us now,” Stosch then says.
“What’d I do?” Morales says.
The videos show Morales being pushed into a wall and against a metal pipe. Stosch sits on his back then being taken down hard by the officers before he is cuffed and shoved into a police car.
“If you don’t stop moving I will punch you in the f—— face,” Stosch says, the video shows.
“Y’all sprayed me, I can’t breathe,” Morales says in the car. “I have asthma. Y’all just arrest me for no reason.”
An officer replies, “Some of your boys wanted to make it hot. You didn’t wanna put your hands behind your back. You were tensing up.”
At the precinct, he was not accused of littering, but charged instead with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstructing the officers.
The police claimed they arrested Morales because the crowd was getting hostile, the DA’s April 22 decline prosecution letter states.
In opting not to take the case, Brooklyn prosecutors noted in their letter that though the crowd was hostile, Morales was not, and fully cooperated with the officers.
The NYPD filed a new case in Summons Court in Manhattan accusing Morales of having a pocket knife in plain view, a noncriminal violation under city code, records show.
The police didn’t mention a knife in evidence provided to the DA’s office, the DA’s letter shows. Stosch, the officer who allegedly roughed up Morales, then served as the “prosecutor” in the Summons Court case.
But he arrived to a May 24 hearing without key evidence such as body cam video, the lawsuit alleges. He didn’t show up to a second hearing and the judge dismissed the case June 13, the lawsuit indicates.
The lawsuit alleges the DA’s failure to prevent the summons court action was an “abdication” of its duty to protect its constituents. Kaishian says the practice is not covered by law, but by written agreements between the NYPD and the DA’s offices.
“District attorneys are elected by constituents based on their proposal and they are legally required to seek justice,” Kaishian said. “If the DA’s determination is that police brought a case too weak to move forward, there shouldn’t be an epilogue.”
Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for the DA’s office, declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said, “When the DA’s office declines to prosecute a case on the merits, police should take no further action.”