‘THEY COULD HAVE KILLED HIM’
Shellshocked Trenton Police Department hit with more brutality allegations >>
Genesis Torres displays injuries he says he suffered at the hands of police in Trenton.
TRENTON » A city man said he was beaten to a pulp this month, suffering a concussion, broken bones and head injuries, at the hands of Trenton police officers who pulled him over for allegedly blowing through a red light.
That is when Genesis Torres and his attorney say police “beat the crap out of” him.
Torres, a 40-year-old Connecticut transplant who has lived in Trenton since he was seven years old, had been trying to keep a low profile until he was pulled over and roughed up the night of Sept. 2, outside a city liquor store.
As he sat inside the office of his attorney Robin Lord, Torres recounted being tackled, punched and kicked by two city police officers.
“They could have killed him,” Lord said, incredulously as she talked of his head injuries.
Torres has filed an internal affairs complaint against TPD, and his attorney received word the department has launched an investigation into his allegations.
Torres said a witness in the parking lot has come forward, willing to substantiate his brutality claims. He provided his attorney with the man’s name, hoping she can track him down.
Police said in a criminal complaint that Torres fought with officers. Police video footage of the incident, which could show which side is being truthful, appears not to exist.
Torres’ police brutality allegations come on the heels of admissions from other city cops that they used excessive force in arresting suspects, including beating one with a flashlight.
He said in an interview with The Trentonian he plans to sue the city over the incident.
“When I got to the back parking lot, I seen two cops,” Torres said. “They told me, ‘Don’t move, don’t move, don’t move.’ I put my hands up. As I’m falling down, they’re punching on me.”
Torres said he stopped with his hands up and didn’t run from police. He has signed a patient-confidentiality waiver allowing his attorney to get his medical records. While it was provided photos of his injuries, The Trentonian was not given access to Torres’ hospital records to substantiate his claims.
The allegations from Torres, which a police spokesman wouldn’t directly address, are another low blow for the department at a time when the city police director Ernest Parrey Jr. is under fire. The Trenton chapter of the NAACP has asked for his resignation, saying it has lost faith in his ability to lead. Community activists were enraged after Parrey was caught on tape calling city residents “hood rats.”
Critics said the derogatory term was racist and showed that, from the director on down, police view city residents as “subhuman.”
Following the release of body camera footage that caught three city cops discussing how to get away with using excessive force, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey called for an outside investigation into whether city police have engaged in a pattern and practice of brutality.
Police spokesman Lt. Stephen Varn was asked to address Torres’ allegations but would only say in a text message, “It’s the policy of the department not to comment on internal investigations.”
Varn said, once completed, results of the IA investigation would be turned over to Torres.
Torres and his attorney hope, by speaking out, they may help put an end to what they view as illegal actions of an out-of-control force.
“This s*** needs to stop and stop now,” Lord said, promising to file a civil tort claim notice against the city in the coming weeks. She has up to three months to do so. “I’ve been complaining about police brutality in this city for decades. It’s about time they do something about it.”
Lord and Torres are striking while the iron is hot, with the police director on the hot seat. Though he has expressed continued confidence in Parrey, Mayor Eric Jackson acknowledged in a previous interview with The Trentonian that Parrey’s days as police director may be numbered. When asked about a change in leadership, Jackson said that Parrey was the police director “today.”
With the election coming up, one city councilor read that to mean the first-term mayor may be changing his mind on Parrey.
Lord wouldn’t go so far as to call for the police director’s resignation. She said Torres’ case proves the problem with the department is more entrenched than one man.
Handcuffed to the bed, Torres spent three days in the hospital after his encounter with the cops.
He showed The Trentonian photos of his battered, bruised and bloodied face, taken days after the brutal beatdown. He had two black eyes in the photos and scratches and cuts on his forehead.
He still sported a shiner under his right eye as he spoke.
“I had mad blood in my eyes,” Torres said.
Which is part of the reason Torres said he couldn’t identify his assailants.
The officer who drafted Torres’ criminal complaint, Harrison Steimle, accused the city man of fighting with police.
Steimle was accompanied by detective Jorge Mejia, according to documents obtained by The Trentonian.
Torres was charged with aggravated assault on officers, resisting arrest and drug possession. Lord claimed police filed an aggravated assault charge to “cover [their] asses.” Cops contend they found cocaine and marijuana after initiating the car stop.
A probable cause affidavit said Torres was in a two-door Chevrolet Monte Carlo when cops tried to pull it over on Centre Street. The cops, in a marked patrol car, said Torres ignored oncoming traffic and accelerated through a red light.
Torres said he was turning right, into the liquor store, and didn’t notice the cops until he had gotten out of his car and started walking toward the front entrance. They didn’t have their lights on, he said.
The cops said Torres was given a “loud and lawful” order to stay in the car. They contend he took off running, leaving the car engine running as he tried to get away, physically accosting the officers.
“We quickly closed the distance to Torres and grabbed him,” Harrison wrote in the complaint. “Torres stiffened his body and refused to place his hands behind his back. Torres struck Detective Mejia’s forearms in an attempt free himself. Torres violently swung his arms with closed fists and struck at us as he attempted to escape.” Lord called the cops’ allegations standard boilerplate, cut and pasted from “their iPhones.” The real victim, she said, is Torres who also suffered a fractured jaw and cheekbone. Officers also broke his nose, over a minor traffic violation, Lord said. Torres was unable to say for certain which of the two officers pushed him over the guardrail after he gave himself up, raising his hands in surrender. “I didn’t want to get shot,” he said, accounting for some of the shootings of unarmed black men that captured the nation’s attention and led to calls for police reform. “I didn’t want them to think I had a weapon.” Torres said he blacked out, unable to recall details, after hitting his head on the ground in the parking lot of Lamberton Liquors. His legs were still wrapped around the guardrail he fell over when one of the cops shoved him in the chest. Unable to brace himself or break his fall, Torres’ head bounced off the ground after he violently slammed into the pavement. When he came to, police officers were on top of him showering him with hard blows. Lord has asked TPD for body cam footage of the encounter. She said she was told by a detective in the IA unit the department’s street crimes unit isn’t outfitted with body cams, at the discretion of the police director. Lord said she was surprised to find out the unit that arrests hardcore criminals isn’t required to wear cameras. She’s hoping the incident involving her client may have been caught on tape when patrol officers, who are strapped with cameras, showed up to the scene. “You have to ask [Parrey],” Lord said. “I think I’ll ask the mayor.” Torres hopes for a good outcome in his criminal case and to get a measure of justice in the civil case. Ordered by doctors to follow up with a neurologist, he hopes he doesn’t suffer permanent damage. “I hope nobody else goes through what I did,” Torres said.