TPD SUED AGAIN
Trenton Police vlogger says ‘crooked’ Maxwell beat him for filming brother’s arrest in 2019 >>
TRENTON >> Viral videomaker Juan “Pito” Morales claims he got his face rearranged for filming the actions of “crooked-a** cops.”
And now he’s punching back — legally.
On March 31, Morales filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Trenton cops Travis Maxwell and Christopher Hutton after he says cops hit him with false charges for filming his brother’s April 19, 2019, encounter with members of a much-maligned Trenton Police special unit.
It’s the second lawsuit in as many weeks that accuses officers of violating citizens’ First Amendment right to film cops in action.
A bar employee says Trenton cops also beat her up for filming arrests outside of Championship Bar about a month before the Morales incident.
In the complaint, Morales claims he was “acting as a witness” to the arrest of brother Javier when Maxwell grew “irate,” chased him down like a linebacker and beat him to a pulp simply for shouting “f*ck you” at the officer.
“An officer is not free to arrest an individual merely for uttering objectionable, harmless speech under the First Amendment, nor to use excessive violence against a citizen for merely uttering offensive remarks,” attorney Arun Lavine wrote in the suit.
Morales claimed in a separate interview that Maxwell struck him at least twice in the back of the
head with a walkie-talkie while his arms were behind his back.
“It felt like an object. Real solid,” said Morales, who provided photos to The Trentonian documenting his injuries, which included two puffy eyes.
He claimed to have a knot on the back of his head from the walkie-talkie bludgeoning.
A police supervisor insisted Morales be taken to the hospital after seeing his injuries when he was brought to headquarters for booking, according to the suit.
Morales says he was warned by cops not to file an internal affairs complaint against Maxwell or he’d be making the harassment “much worse” for himself, but he did so anyway, according to the complaint.
“I was treated like straightup dog sh*t,” Morales said. “When they get aggressive, they just demons, bro. I’ma always keep this b**ch on me whether they like it or not. You feel me?”
Morales isn’t a stranger to law enforcement. He has a rap sheet that includes drug convictions dating back to the 1990s.
He said he left his drugdealing past behind after finishing a prison bid and now flips abandoned houses for a living.
Morales says he started filming cops to protect people’s civil rights, documenting the alleged heavyhanded dealings of the “green team,” referring to Trenton’s street crimes unit.
But cops believe Morales is still in the game, and uses his younger son — also named Juan Morales — as a mule to push drugs, according to the complaint.
Two months after the older Morales encounter with Maxwell, his son, then 21, was pinched with heroin, pills and marijuana during a car stop, police said.
Morales claims in the suit that the day before his son’s arrest, Officer Frederick Bender conducted a cavity search and look in his car for drugs “without justification.” “Mr. Morales believes that the officers were attempting to send him a message by arresting his son,” Lavine wrote.
Then in March 2020, the elder Morales was hit with his own drug charges after cops claimed they found him with cocaine while they were looking for a suspect in an unrelated domestic violence case.
Morales was allegedly standing between two cars in a parking lot with a white box in his hands and ducked down to hide it when he saw the boys in blue sometime after midnight, police said at the time.
He had a blunt behind his ear and $2,800 in cash during the arrest, according to police.
Morales claims that the substance he had on him was borac acid, a pesticide used to eliminate roach infestations.
He said the cocaine case is still active, pending results from the crime lab.
Morales alleges in the complaint that his multiple encounters with Trenton cops show they have it out for him.
He says another cop, Samuel Santiago, informed him that the department circulated an internal memo “warning officers that Mr. Morales would film their encounters,” according to the complaint.
Maxwell Video
Morales posts his interactions with Trenton Police on his Facebook page PitoTv, which has a couple thousand followers.
He said he was on his mother-in-law’s porch hanging out with a friend when the cops jumped out on his brother Javier — who was murdered in May 2019 — while he was walking back with a woman from a nearby liquor store.
Video of the interaction picks up with Trenton cop Eliezer Ramos patting down Javier while he was sprawled out on the hood of an SUV as Maxwell searched a second man.
Morales was filming officers from about 10 to 15 feet away, when Maxwell walked over and hassled him and a friend.
“Disappear now,” the bald-headed Maxwell says in the video.
When Morales objects, Maxwell tells him, “You not listening is illegal. You can video tape over there.”
“Well, I live right here,” Morales said, planting himself near his mother-inlaw’s porch. “I ain’t bothering nobody.”
“What they got you for?” Morales asks his brother.
“For doing exactly what you saw him do,” Maxwell responds.
“What the f*ck was that, asshole?” Morales says back.
Maxwell continues engaging with the crowd when they ask if cops found “evidence” that Javier was slinging drugs.
“Possession’s nine-tenths of the law,” bro,” Morales says.
“You need evidence, bro,” another person shouts.
“Let me tell you something. We’re not going to stand out here and debate with you,” Maxwell says while walking toward the bystander. “You obstruct the investigation one more time, you’re going to jail. Got that on video?”
As Javier is handcuffed and led away, Maxwell walks back over the SUV and uses his flashlight to search underneath the vehicle.
Seconds later, he emerges with what appeared to be a baggie.
“Nah, hell no. Ya’ll ain’t gonna pin that on him,” Morales objects.
“You just videoed it. That’s even the best part,” Maxwell says.
Maxwell walks up to Morales as the two men argue about the alleged planted baggie.
“You can go stand over there like I told you,” Maxwell says.
“I’m standing right here in front of my property like I told you,” Morales says.
“You think that matters to me?” Maxwell says. “I don’t give a sh*t. I’ll come right up there and lock you up,” Maxwell said, adding he’d arrest Morales for “acting improper.”
“Record all you want,” Maxwell says as he walks off.
“I am. And I’ll got take it my lawyer’s office tomorrow,” Morales says.
Then he shouts, “F**k you.”
“What did you say?” Maxwell says before sprinting toward Morales who runs while continuing to film.
The video cuts off a few seconds later, without capturing Maxwell’s alleged beatdown.
Morales says he’s heard nothing about the IA complaint against Maxwell.
A Trenton police spokesman said Maxwell was exonerated of misconduct, and the case was closed in October 2019.
Maxwell has his own alleged brutal history on the force, according to the lawsuit.
In 2011, Maxwell shot and killed ex-con Aaron Veh Carter in what police described as self-defense.
Maxwell was named in a separate lawsuit alleging police brutality that the city settled for $213,000.
Morales says he wants Trenton Police to clean up the ranks, which he believes is full of “rotten apples.”
He points to two Trenton officers who were pinched by the feds in 2019 for allegedly using excessive force.
“I hope they continue to stay on top of them and get all them dirtya** cops out of there,” Morales said. “You don’t have no higher authority than we do. Just because you carry a gun and walk around with a little badge, that don’t give you no stain.”