5-yr. wait in suit vs. cop
POLICE BUFF Steven McDuffie thinks it’s bad enough that he had to sue the NYPD for wrongful arrest.
But that was five years ago, and his case still hasn’t gone to trial.
The freelance photographer — who took pictures for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association — insists he has nothing but love for cops, except, perhaps, the one he alleges jumped him from behind five years ago while he was shopping in a Brooklyn store.
McDuffie, 46, was in a Rockaway Ave. shop buying a window screen for his home in July 2010 when a cop grabbed him from behind, according to his lawsuit.
The freelance photographer thought he was being robbed so he turned around and “started swinging” to defend himself.
“We’re talking Brownsville, Brooklyn,” he emphasized.
After they both fell on the floor, he realized he was tussling with a police officer. The officer, Adam Colin, quickly got on his radio.
“He called in a 10-13,” said McDuffie, who had heard enough cop chatter to know what was coming next. “That means an officer is in trouble and needs assistance.”
Back up from the 73rd Precinct poured into the store. Many of them were McDuffie’s friends.
“They were saying, ‘Steve is good people. Steve takes pictures for the PBA magazine. He knows the mayor, the district attorney and the police commissioner,’ ” he said.
But Colin, according to McDuffie, was not impressed.
McDuffie was arrested and charged with criminal impersonation, menacing, harassment, resisting arrest, unlawful possession of radio devices and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Everything, the lawsuit said, except robbery.
McDuffie who suffers from epileptic seizures since a catastrophic car accident left him in a coma for six months in the 1980s, said Colin knocked out four of his teeth and dumped his medication on the sidewalk.
McDuffie was hospitalized after spending 36 hours in custody without his medication, according to the lawsuit.
“He lied. He put down (in the police report) that I was impersonating an officer and (in) unlawful possession of a radio device. My radio doesn’t transmit. I’m a freelance photographer,” he said.
After three court appearances and turning down a plea deal, the charges were dismissed by a judge six months later after Colin and prosecutors did not show up for court, McDuffie said in the suit.
More than five years have passed since the arrest, and McDuffie said his legal and medical bills have been piling up.
“How come we never got to sit before a judge? When do I get my justice?” he said.
A spokesman for the city Law Department said, “The case is now in discovery posture.”
But a legal source said the delay is unusual.
“More should have been done with this case by now,” the source said.
Colin is still active and was not reassigned, according to cops.
How come we never got to sit before a judge? When do I get my justice?
— STEVEN McDUFFIE